RJ 

N56 




Glass 
Book 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 






PRE-NATAL CULTURE; 



SUGGESTIONS TO PARENTS 

relative: to 

SYSTEMATIC METHODS OF MOULDING THE TENDEN- 
CIES OF OFFSPRING BEFORE BIRTH. 

By ATE. NEWTON, 

Author of " The Better "Way," &c. 



"In our birth * * * we have whole rivers of predispositions, good or 
bad, set running in us— as much more powerful to shape our future than 
aU tuitions! and regulative influences that come after, as they are earlier 
in their beginning, deeper in their insertion and more constant in their 
operation."— Rev. Dr. Bushnell. 

'"To the well-born child all the virtues are natural, and not painfully 
•cquired."— R. W. Emerson. 



Copyrighted, 1893, by Caroline B. Winslow, M. D. 
it" 



FOURTH EDITION. /.<$>* o^™ G «r \ 

^AUG 241893 



WASHINGTON, I). C 
Published by the Moral Education Sou 
Nq. 1. Grant Place. 
1893. 






•Y«, 



The following treatise is reprinted from the columns of 
The Alpha, a monthly publication, issued by the Moral 
Educational Society of Washington, D. C. 



TOPICS DISCUSSED. 



Introductory 3 

The Law of Embryonic Moulding 4 

Chance vs. Intelligent Purpose 8 

Importance of System 10 

Antecedent Preparations.... 12 

Regeneration Should Precede Generation 16 

Is it Practicable? 19 

Help is at Hand 21 

Right Living 23 

Aspiration 27 

Faith a Recuperative Agency 29 

Higher Possibilities 30 

Hope for All 35 

A Parental Providence 35 

The Divine Overshadowing 37 

Special Interior Leadings 38 

Adaptations 40 

Methods of Embryo Culture^ 41 

Specific Suggestions— First .^tage 47 

Second Stage 52 

Third Stage 52 

Fourth Stage 54 

Fifth Stage 55 

General Remarks 56 

The Fathers Share in the Work 60 

Conferring Special Tendencies— Genius 61 

Times and Seasons 64 

Conclusion 65 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

That a mother may, during the period of gestation, exercise 
some influence, by her own voluntary mental and physical 
action, either unwittingly or purposely (and aside from the 
usual involuntary action of the laws of heredity), in deter- 
mining the traits and tendencies of her offspring is now a 
common belief among intelligent people. But probably few 
have any definite understanding of the process by which such 
results are effected, or conception of the extent to which this 
process may be controlled, by intelligent purpose and wise 
direction, for the benefit of our children and the improvement 
of our race. 

No more important subject can engage the attention of 
parents, and it is believed there is none in which intelligent 
and loving mothers will take a deeper interest when once 
made intelligent to them. 

In the hope of throwing some additional light upon this 
momentous problem, by means of suggestions and considera- 
tions which the author has met with in no other work, and 
which it is believed will be found practically useful to those 
whose high privilege it may be to usher into the world the men 
and women of the future, these pages are written. 

In a previously published essay, entitled " The Better 
Way'** the writer has expressed the seemingly-extravagant 

♦Published by Wood & Ho'Jbrook, 15 Laight street, New York. 



4 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

conviction, founded on facts, some of which are there stated, 
that " it is for the mother, by the use of appropriate means 
(provided a sufficient organic capacity has been germinal ly 
contributed by the father, and provided, also, the mother's 
efforts are properly seconded by the father), to produce a poet, 
a thinker, an artist, an inventor, a philanthropist, or any other 
type of manhood or womanhood . desirable or undesirable, as 
she will." 

If this, or any near approximation to it, is possible, it is 
surely worth the while of every intending mother, and father 
also, to make an effort to know of what these appropriate means 
consist, and how to apply them successfully. 

Let us then first give attention to some suggestions on 

THE LAW OF EMBRYONIC MOULDING, 

An author, Dr. Brittan, who has given much study to the 
occult problem of human life, in writing of the "lielations 
of Mind to Offspring," gives the following very reasonable 
hypothesis as to the law or process of embryonic moulding: 

" The singular effect produced on the unborn child by the 
sudden mental emotions of the mother are remarkable exam- 
ples of a kind of electrotyping on the sensitive surfaces of 
living forms. It is doubtless true that the mind's action, in 
such cases, may increase or diminish the molecular deposits 
in the several portions of the system. The precise place 
which each separate particle assumes in the new organic 
structure may be determined by the influence of thought or 
feeling. If, for example, there exists in the mother any un- 
usual tendency of the vital forces to the brain at the critical 
period, there will be a similar cerebral development and activity 
in the offspring."* 

*"Man and His Relations,*' by Dr. S. B. Brittan, paste 131. 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 5 

In illustration and confirmation of this law, the same 
author gives the following facts: 

•A lady, who, during the period of gestation, was chiefly 
employed in reading the poets and in giving form to her day- 
dreams of the ideal world, at the same time gave to her child 
{in phrenological parlance) large Ideality and a highly imag- 
inative turn of mind. 

"Some time since we met with a youth who had finely 
moulded limbs and a symmetrical form throughout. His 
mother has a large, lean, attenuated frame, that does not 
offer so much as a single suggestion of the beautiful. The 
boy is doubtless indebted for his fine form to the presence of 
a beautiful French lithograph in his mother's sleeping apart- 
ment, and which presented for her contemplation the faultless 
form of a naked child.'' 

The electrotyping process referred to in the above quota- 
tion may not be familiar to every reader. It consists in caus- 
ing, by means of electrical agency, the deposit of fine parti- 
cles of metal (as gold, silver, or copper) dissolved in a powerful 
acid, upon the surface of any article which it is desired 
should receive a coating of such metal. Gilding, silver- 
plating, and copper-facing are now executed to a large extent 
by this curious process, the coating of metal thus deposited 
becoming exceedingly compact and durable, and capable of 
being made of any desirable thickness, proportionate to the time 
•occupied in the process. It is reasonable to suppose that by a 
-somewhat similar process, effected by the vital forces of the 
mother, and to some extent controllable by her mental opera- 
tions and emotions, are deposited the molecules of matter 
which go to form the human embryo in all its various parts.* 

•The suggestion in a recent issue of The Alpha, that "mothers' 
marks " result from a concentration of nervous forces, by the touch 
of the mother's hand upon some part of her own person while under 
mental excitement from some special cause, appears to accord with 
and confirm the above stated theory. 



6 PRE-NATAL CULTUEE. 

A striking fact, in further illustration of the same law, is 
given by the author of the valuable book entitled "Husband 
and Wife."* 

It is to this effect: A teacher in a Western State had under 
her instruction five children belonging to one family. " The 
two eldest were dull, inert, and slow to learn; while the third, 
a girl about twelve years of age, was remarkably bright, 
sensitive, and talented. Not only apt and quick at her 
lessons, she possessed a fine poetic temperament, accom- 
panied by a keen appreciation of the beauties of nature ; she 
could also write a theme in prose or verse with ease and 
facility. The children younger than this one were both 
physically and mentally superior to the two eldest, but far 
inferior to her in talent and refinement of manners." These 
differences were so marked that the teacher's curiosity was 
excited to learn the cause. Becoming intimately acquainted 
with the mother, (who at first could assign no reason for the 
diversity,) the teacher at length ascertained the following 
facts: Some months prior to the birth of the favored child, 
the mother (who, though reared in an Eastern State, in the 
enjoyment of fair advantages, had become the wife of a 
farmer in a new country, deprived of literary and social 
privileges, and over-worked in the struggle to acquire a com- 
petence) had her attention attracted to a volume of Walter 
Scott's poems, brought to the house by a traveling peddler; 
and she was so seized with a desire to possess and read the 
book, that, not having at hand the money to purchase it, she 
had walked four miles at night to borrow of a friend a sufficient 
sum for the purpose. "And a glorious time I had in reading 
it," she said; " for often in the perusal of its pages I forgot 
my fatigues and cares." Having read the book so often, that 
she came to know much of it by rote, she used to sing the 
songs to the child when an infant, and afterward to repeat 

♦Published by Carlton, New York, 1863. 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 7 

the stories to her when a little girl. Here, no doubt, was the 
source of the superior intelligence, refinement, and poetic 
tendencies of the child. 

Dr. Elam. in ".1 Physician's Problem*,"* quotes Sir A. Car- 
lisle as saying that " many years since an old schoolmaster 
had told him that, in the course of his personal experience, 
he had observed a remarkable difference in the capacities of 
children for learning, which was connected with the educa- 
tion and aptitude of their parents; that the children of people 
accustomed to arithmetic learned figures quicker than those 
of differently educated persons; while the children of classi- 
cal scholars more easily learned Latin and Greek; and that, 
notwithstanding a few striking exceptions, the natural dull- 
ness of children born of uneducated parents was proverbial." 

Every observant teacher could doubtless bear witness to the 
same general facts, and it would be easy to fill a volume with 
testimonies from various sources illustrative and confirmatory 
of the law under discussion. Such facts seem to establish 
beyond question the conviction that the mother has it largely 
in her power, by the use of suitable means, to confer on her 
child (not, indeed, the knoidedge which she may herself have 
acquired, but) such a tendency of mind and conformation of 
brain as shall not only facilitate the acquisition of knowledge 
in any specific direction, but make it morally certain that such 
knowledge will be sought and acquired. 

Not only this, but they indicate also that any desired type 
of physical beauty may be conferred, even where the mother 
possesses no such quality. 

And if this be true in respect to ordinary intellectual abili- 
ties and physical features, it must be equally true in regard to 
extraordinary mental gifts — the qualities of genius of every 
type — and of all moral dispositions and spiritual tendencies 

as we ll. __ 

*Publistaed by McMillan & Co., London, 1869. 



8 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

CHANCE />'. INTELLIGENT PURPOSE. 

But it will be noted that in the cases thus far narrated, as 
in those usually given to the public bearing on this topic, the 
moulding power we are considering appears to have been exer- 
cised merely by accident or chance: that is, without any intel- 
ligent purpose on the part of mothers to produce the results 
that have followed. 

Can there be any doubt that the same or similar means, if 
purposely and wisely adopted, and applied with the greater 
care and precision which enlightened intention would secure, 
would produce, under the same law, even more perfect results ? 
And if it be a fact, as affirmed by Dr. Brittan, that " any 
unusual tendency of the vital forces to the brain (of the 
mother) at the critical period " will produce " a similar cere- 
bral development and activity in the offspring," is it not alto- 
gether probable, also, that an intentional direction of the vital 
or mental forces to any particular portion of the brain will 
cause a development and activity in the corresponding portion 
of the brain of the offspring ? 

There seems to be no reasonable ground on which these 
propositions can be denied. 

If, then, we accept, as many do, the theory of modern 
phrenology, and regard the brain as made up of a congeries 
of organs, which are the instruments of distinct faculties of 
the mind or soul, it follows that if the mother during gesta- 
tion maintains a special activity of any one organ, or group of 
organs, in her brain, she thereby causes a more full development 
of the corresponding organ or group in the brain of the fetus, 
and thus determines a tendency to special activity of the facul- 
ties, of which such organs are the instruments, in the child. 

And, further, it is plain that if any one organ or faculty 
may be thus cultivated before birth, and its activity enhanced 
for life so may any other — and so may all. 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 9 

It would seem, then, clearly within the bounds of possi- 
bility that a mother, by pursuing a systematic and comprehensive 
method, may give a well-rounded and harmoniously developed 
organism to her child — and this notwithstanding even her 
own defects, 'which under the unguided operation of hered- 
itary law are likely to be repeated in olVspring. Or it is 
within her power to impart a leading tendency in any specific 
direction that she may deem desirable for a life of the highest. 
usef ulness. 

In this way, it would seem, may ancestral defects and un- 
desirable hereditary traits, of whatever nature or however 
strong, be overcome, or in a good degree counterbalanced by 
giving greater activity to counteracting tendencies; and in 
tins way, too. it would appear, may ihe coveted gifts of 
genius be conferred. 

But some may object that the phrenological theory relative 
to the division of the brain into a congeries of separate 
organs is not and cannot be demonstrated. Very well. The 
fact still remains in every one's consciousness, that our minds 
or souls possess a variety of powers or faculties, in some 
sense distinct; and the evidence still holds good that the 
mother, by the special exercise of anyone faculty during the 
critical period referred to, can and does create a special tend- 
ency to the activity of the same faculty in her offspring, 
which may last throughout its earthly life. 

And since it is on the activity, or the lack of it, of the sev- 
eral faculties and propensities of our nature that the charac- 
ters of individuals depend — their loveliness or deformity, 
their morality or immorality, their success or failure iu life, 
their happiness or wretchedness here and hereafter — and 
since the welfare and progress of humanity as a whole is de- 
termined by the characters of individuals — and since, again, 
the tendencies for good or evil inwoven into the very woof 
and texture of the embryo evidently have greater power in 



10 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

shaping the characters and acts of individuals than all the 
training and discipline of childhood and youth — this matter 
of culture before birth assumes an importance far above that 
which pertains to any and all other departments of education. 
Hitherto it has been least and last in the estimation of man- 
kind generally. The time must come when the last shall 

BE FTUST. 

To recapitulate: we seem justified by present physiological 
knowledge in stating the law of pre natal moulding to be 
somewhat as follows: The human embryo (the structural 
basis of which is probably contributed by the father) is 
formed and developed in all its parts, even to the minutest 
details, by and through the action of the vital, mental, and 
spiritual forces of the mother, which forces act in and through 
the corresponding portions of her own organism. And while 
this process may go forward unconsciously, or without 
the mother's voluntary participation or direction, in which 
case the results are measurably uncertain or chance-deter- 
mined, (or, perhaps, more strictly speaking, shaped by influ- 
ences extraneous to her own will,) yet she may consciously 
and purposely so direct her activities as with a good degree 
of certainty to accomplish specifically-desired ends in deter- 
mining the traits and qualities of her offspring. 

In other words, it would seem to be within the mother's 
power, by the voluntary and intelligent direction of her own 
forces, in orderly and systematic methods, to both mould the 
physical form to lines of beauty and shape the mental, moral, 
and spiritual features of her child to an extent to which no 
limit can be assigned. 

MPOBTANCE OF SYSTEM. 

The methods by which the tendencies of offspring may be 
shaped before birth are indicated in a general way by the 
facts and observations already set forth. But that this mo- 



PRE-NATAL OULTUKE, 11 

nientous work may be performed with anything like com - 
pleteness, so that not only each department, physical, mental, 
and moral, shall receive its due proportion of attention, and 
at the proper time, but also that each specific faculty of the 
intellect and of the moral nature shall be given the requisite 
impetus to result in a well-balanced and harmonious charac- 
ter, would seem to require the pursuit of some well-devised 
plan or system in the application of methods. 

This is probably as important in pre-natal as in postnatal 
culture. No one thinks of conducting a common primary 
school without an order of exercises and such a curriculum 
of studies as shall, by progressive steps, cover the whole 
ground desired within the allotted time. If the course of 
procedure were left to chance, or to the impulse of the mo- 
ment, it is pretty certain that much would be overlooked and 
neglected, and much done out of place and therefore to little 
purpose. So in the process of embryotic moulding, if it be 
left merely to the ordinary action of the laws of heredity, 
with the chance-occurrence of modifying influences, as is 
usually the case, what else can be expected than that parental 
or ancestral traits, good or bad, will strongly preponderate in 
the child, with now and then an erratic variation, desirable or 
undesirable, and perhaps a sad deficiency of some faculty or 
quality important to wholeness. Every wise and loving parent 
must desire to confer on offspring wholeness and soundness 
in every part. 

Besides, if the mother has before her mind a definite plan 
and purpose, to the execution of which she is directing and 
disciplining her energies, she will doubtless be thereby measu- 
rably guarded and fortified against the often disastrous effects 
of surprises and sudden emotions. 

But it will be apparent to every one that the work of pre- 
natal culture, however intelligently and systematically under- 
taken, cannot effect its best results if the mother's attention 



1*2 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

to the subject is limited merely to the nine or twelve months- 
next precediDg birth. Before attempting, then, to suggest a 
plan for orderly and systematic procedure during the season 
of gestation, let us first give some attention to the matter of 

ANTECEDENT PREPARATIONS. 

Great as may be the effects produced by judicious manage- 
ment during pregnancy, yet these effects must be subject to- 
important modifications by previous life-habits, long-indulged 
tendencies, weaknesses, diseases of whatever nature, in both 
parents, and in their ancestors on both sides. 

Some persons, indeed, question whether any marked im- 
provement can be realized in a single generation. An intelli- 
gent and valued correspondent of the writer thinks him 
inclined to " greatly over-rate the direct control which parents 
in any one generation may exercise over their offspring, and 
-•till more the effect of voluntary mental and physical states. 
at the time of conception:" and he adds: 

"Our children are affected by our habitual states, rather 
than by any transieut assumption of habits, or any impulses 
or moods which prevail at the given date. The father is not 
what he just then wishes or resolves to be; he is what he has 
been making himself all his life, and what his ancestors made 
him. The cosmic forces require time in which to deploy 
themselves and produce new results, and cannot turn about 
at once in any masculine or feminine organ. Their field is 
the world and the ages.'" 

While there is truth in this statement, it is plainly but one- 
side of a very complex truth. Numerous facts indicate t hat- 
offspring may be affected, and their tendencies shaped, by a, 
great variety of influences, and from diverse sources, among 
which moods and impulses more or less transient in the parents- 
may be included. 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 13 

If it were not so, all children born of the same parents, 
within a few years of each other should be substantially alike 
in dispositions and abilities. Especially should this be the 
case with all twins, who are doubtless begotten, if not at the 
sann.' moment, at farthest within a few hours of each other. 
But the well-known fact is that children nearest of age in the 
same family often differ markedly in their characteristics, 
and even twins, in some cases, exhibit very striking contrarie- 
ties of disposition, quality, and even of physical feature — 
indicating, no doubt, a marked change of state, from some 
cause, in one or both parents, between the times of their in- 
ception, since all subsequent affective influences must have- 
been shared alike by them. 

The power of vivid sensational and mental impressions to 
directly modify to some extent the action of the cosmic forces 
in embryo life has been recognized in all ages, at least since 
Jacob's successful experiment with Laban's flocks. The 
" peeled stakes " set up at the drinking places of the cattle 
imparted a " transient impulse," but a most effective one for 
Jacob's interests. " The Greeks " (says a writer in the Popu- 
lar Science Monthly for January, 1879,) " believed so strongly 
in the potency of pre-natal conditions that they not only 
guarded mothers who w T ere bearing with the kindest care, but 
used even to surround them with beautiful works of art, that 
the imagination might act a favorable part." 

There is, however, no doubt, more or less of uncertainty 
attending the action of transient impulses. The most, there- 
fore, that we can say with safety is, that our children are 
pretty sure, under the constant forces of heredity, to be 
enstamped by our habitual states, while they are also 
liable to be powerfully affected in their dispositions and tend- 
encies by even the transient assumption of habits, or by im- 
pulses or moods that may prevail at conception or during 
testation. 



14 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

It is manifestly important, then, to the best results, tha 
both our habitual states and our transient impulses should be 
such as will bless and not curse our offspring — important to 
have all these sources of influences wholly on the side of noble- 
ness, virtue, and beauty of character in all respects. To this 
end, does it cot behoove every one who aspires to the god-like 
honor of begetting a being in his or her own likeness, to first 
enter in thorough earnest upon the work of self -improve- 
ment, self-discipline, and moral and spiritual purgation ? Is 
it not incumbent upon all such by no means to attempt or 
consent to become instrumental in initiating a new life until 
reasonably sure of not imparting the taint of moral or physi- 
cal evils to curse its existence ? Can any stronger motive to 
self -improvement be presented to a conscientious mind than 
this consideration affords ? And can any time in life be too 
early to begin this work ?* 

All should remember that children hace rights, which are 
as sacred as can be those of any other beings; and among the 
first of these is the right to be well-born. 

It hardly need be said, except for the woful thoughtlessness 
that often exists on the subject, that so momentous an under- 
taking as the originating and nurturing of a young immortal 
— a being that is to eDJoy or suffer throughout eons of exist- 
ence, and that is to bless or curse its fellows on earth through 
unknown generations, largely according to the characteristics 
enstamped on it by its parents — it hardly need be said that 
such an undertaking should be left in no avoidable degree to 
chance or accident. Above all, it should not be (as it so often 
is) the haphazard result, of blind passion, or mere pleasure- 
seeking indulgence. Realizing the august responsibilities in- 

*A lady having- much experience as an instructor of youth informs 
the writer that she has found the presentation of this motive a most 
effective means of awakening the interest and arousing the endeavors 
of girls and young women in the dh'ection of both physical and moral 
culture. 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 15 

volved, both parents should not only act with intelligent fore- 
thought and deliberate intention, but surely should make the 
best preparation in themselves and their surroundings of which 
they are capable. 

Since " like begets like," on every plane of existence, it is 
evident that the preparations referred to should include every 
department of the being. We are told that the women of 
ancient Sparta exercised in gymnasiums in order to attain the 
highest bodily vigor, preparatory to the exercise of maternity. 
That practice, or its equivalent, may well be revived; or, 
better, women, from childhood, should be taught to practice 
such physical exercises as will develop and preserve the best 
bodily health and vigor. It should be remembered that ordi- 
nary occupations, even of the more active kinds, exercise but 
<( port of the muscles of the body. The whole should be 
brought into frequent action for the fullest vigor. 

But the physical robustness and power of endurance for 
which the Spartans were noted are by no means all that is 
desirable in our day. A universal culture is now demanded. 
The mental, aifectional, moral, aesthetical, and spiritual de- 
partments of our being require no less development and full- 
ness of expression in us, if we would do our noblest work 
and discharge our full duty to our offspring. 

But the self-culture from which these result is not the 
work of a day or even a year. In fact, the whole previous 
life is none too long a period in which to prepare for so serious 
an undertaking as the reproduction of one's self. The 
earlier, therefore, the young of both sexes can be intelli- 
gently instructed in these matters, and impressed with the 
importance of living for those who may come after them, the 
better may they become fitted for the highest responsibilities 
of life. 



16 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 



REGENERATION SHOULD PRECEDE GENERATION. 

"Like begets like," as a general rule, because, doubtless, 
in that most wonderful and mysterious process, the elabora- 
tion of the human germ — one portion (the positive) in the 
male organism, and the other (the negative) in the female — 
by a chemistry too subtle for human analysis, the actual ele- 
ments or essences of every part of one's being, physical, 
mental, and moral, are extracted and compounded, in inrini- 
tessimal yet potential quantities, to be reproduced in the new- 
being created by their union. If the taint of physical dis- 
ease, of mental unsoundness, or of moral obliquity, lurks in 
the system of either parent, it is liable (perhaps not always 
certain) to be infused into the germ, and thus be reproduced 
after its kind. 

Some persons have imagined that because the impregnating 
germ contributed by the male parent is of a microscopic 
dimension, it matters little what his character or qualities 
may be. But this opinion is contrary to all evidence, and to 
the analogies of the animal and vegetable worlds. The 
potency of spirtual elements or forces is by no means deter 
mined by the physical dimensions of their vehicle. While 
the mother may, no doubt, do much b) 7 appropriate manage- 
ment toward modifying and counterbalancing in manifesta- 
tion the traits, good or bad, of the father, nevertheless the 
latter evidently furnishes a sort of substratum of character 
which is dihicult if not impossible of entire eradication. 
Hence, in human culture, as in agriculture, good seed is of 
no less importance than good soil. 

This being so, the importance, on the part of both parents, 
of attaining both physical health and mental and moral 
soundness — or of what in religious phraseology has been 
termed "regeneration and sanctification " — before reproduc- 
tion is attempted, will be apparent to every one. 



PKK-XA'l A I. CULTURE. I 7 

The terms just quoted, no doubt, are often misunderstood 
and their true and lull meaning unperceived. Regeneration 
signifies, literally, generation again; or a second birth. In our 
first birth, which is "of the Mesh," we come into conscious 
life as individual beings, impelled by scltish animal instincts, 
or " fleshly desires." The child's first impulses, like those of 
the animal, center in self; it knows nothing of, cares nothing 
for, the welfare of others. This is one grade of conscious 
existence, very well in its place, but not the highest of which 
human beings are capable. Unlike the animal, we hare the 
capacity to become spirit mil beings. The germ of a spiritual 
nature is doubtless present in U3 from the first; but it needs 
to be quickened and developed into conscious activity, as has 
been the germ of the animal. When this takes place, earlier 
or later, under impregnatire spiritual influences, then we ex- 
perience a second birth — a new life is born within us, we enter 
upon a higher grade of conscious existence. One character- 
istic of this new spiritual consciousness is regard and care for 
•other a, instead of for self, or, in other words, universal love. 
When once the spiritual selfhood has been born into con- 
sciousness, it tends to become the ruling power in us, and in 
proportion as its divine promptings are heeded, it will over- 
come and remove all the evils and impurities of the animal or 
-elfish nature. 

' Sanctirication '' means becoming sane, sound, or whole, 
(holy) and it should be understood in a physical as well as a 
moral and spiritual sense. It is a more or less progressive 
work, consequent upon regeneration, or the awakening of the 
spiritual consciousness. Its full result is to render us whole, 
or .holy, sound, healthy beings, in body, mind, and spirit. 
No one, certainly, can question the desirableness of this, 
whatever may be thought of its practicability. 

It is plain that when once the germinal elements of disease 



18 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

and of moral evils shall have been extirpated in parents, such 
elements cannot be transmitted to offspring, and the latter 
will then be spared the painful processes of purgation which 
otherwise are rendered necessary. This certainly should be 
a most potent inducement to every intending parent to seek 
to attain this condition, if attainable. Of its attainability 
we will speak further on. 

It is the opinion, indeed, of many good, religious people — 
of those called Shakers, in particular — that when men and 
women have become truly regenerated, they should and will 
have nothing more to do with generation. They will then 
leave that noblest and most godlike of human functions to 
such as are still "in the flesh," that is, the unregenerate. 
The common-sense truth, on the contrary, would seem to be 
that not until people have become regenerated, are they at all 
fit for generation. The offspring of truly regenerate parents 
may be expected te be "regenerate from the womb" — that 
is, their spiritual natures may be so quickened before birth,' 
by the activity of the spiritual forces in the parents, that, if 
properly nurtured subsequently, the spiritual in them will 
assume the supremacy from infancy, and maintain it through 
life. Such children will be " born of the spirit" at the out- 
set, and not merely " of the flesh."* 

Let us ask ourselves, what right have we to transmit to 
others — to the dear offspring which every true parental heart 
yearns to bless with every good, and to guard from every evil— ■ 

* Were the Shaker communities of this country intelligently to 
make a practical use of the spiritual culture and purification which 
they claim to have attained, by reproducing- it in offspring- born 
under the favorable material conditions which their ample wealth 
enables them to provide, they might introduce a nobler type of hu- 
manity and thus contribute immensely to human improvement. 
Instead of this they waste their powers largely in comparatively 
futile endeavors to make over such miserably generated specimens 
as chance to fall into their hands, chiefly " conceived in sin and 
shapen in iniquity," while their once flourishing societies are said to 
be dwindling in numbers, until in some places they have not enough 
efficient members left even to take care of the property they possess. 



PBE-NATAL CULTURE. 19 

what right have we to inflict on them the ills and weaknesses, 
the vices and meannesses, which mar and deform our own 
lives? If we allow the desire for a momentary gratification 
to overbear all these considerations, and impel us to give 
origin to a new life regardless of its best interests, what else 
may we expect than that the being thus begotten in our un- 
worthy likeness will, when it comes on the stage of action, 
prove equally indifferent to our welfare and that of others ? 
Such, alas ! is the general characteristic of the children of 
humanity to-day. 

" A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit." 

IS IT PRACTICABLE? 

But it will be asked by many doubting readers, is there 
practically any help for the existing state of things? Are 
there reasonable grounds for hoping that parents in general, 
physically diseased and morally imperfect as they are, may 
by any process of self -culture, or of spiritual regeneration, 
attain to such a state as that they shall not transmit physical 
diseases or moral obliquities to their offspring? Can the 
sexual appetite, for example, whose imperious demands are 
the chief obstacle to such preparatory culture as has been 
herein recommended, be regulated by any means as to admit 
of this culture ? 

"We shall be told that all this threadbare talk about " re- 
generation" and " sanctification," so long heard from the 
pulpits of our popular churches, while very plausible in theory 
and very desirable in fact, is rarely, if ever, realized in prac- 
tice ; and we shall be pointed to numerous instances of persons 
professing to have been regenerated and sanctified, in part at 
least, after the prevalent methods, such as clergymen, deacons, 
and devout professors of religion, whose children give no 
evidence of inheriting such soundness, either physical or 
moral, as might be looked for under this theory ; while not 



20 PBE-NATAL CULTURE. 

unfrequently the children of these classes have proved to bo 
"' twofold more the children of hell," (to use a forcible Scrip- 
ture phrase,) than those whose parents have made no such 
professions. 

The foregoing are pertinent suggestions, and deserve can- 
did consideration. 

And, first, as to those cases of seemingly intensified depravity 
in children of professedly" religion? parents, it may be re- 
marked that, were all the facts known regarding the incep- 
tion and gestation of such, together with the antecedent con- 
dition of the parents in all respects, it might not be difficult 
to account for their vicious proclivities. So vague, super- 
ticial, and meager have been the prevalent views, even among 
the more cultivated relig" as classes, as to what it is to be 
really generated and sanctified, and as to how this state may 
be attained — so little regard has been paid to the finer laws 
of adaptation , temperamental and spiritual, between persons 
entering the parental relation — so seldom has the sacred right 
of the mother to choose, in accordance with her own highest 
monitions, the time and the circumstances under which she 
would assume the maternal functions been delicately re- 
spected — so often, indeed, has she been compelled, or made 
to believe it her religious duty to accept this function at the 
husband's imperious desire, even against the vehement pro- 
test of both soul and body on her part, causing an aversion, 
if not a loathing, which quite unfits her for the proper dis- 
charge of its duties, and produces most unhappy effects upon 
the temper and tendencies of her offspring — and so shadowy 
is the ordinary faith of even Christians in any available help 
or guidance from superior sources in these important con- 
cerns, that the common results among religious people as 
among others, furnish little indication of what might be, and 
what will be when great light and wisdom shall have become 
prevalent relative to these matters. 



1M IK-NATAL CULTURE. 21 

It is certainly quite possible that a religious profession may 
often hypocritically cloak a persistent indulgence in vicious 
propensities, which vril 1 be pretty sure to crop out strongly in 
offspring. These, in an emphatic sense, are the fruits of 
humanity, and " hy their fruits shall ye know them." Or, 
indeed, such a profession may honestly consist with a life- 
long and earnest (but misdirected and therefore unavailing) 
struggle against inborn propensities, which latter, under cer- 
tain conditions, are at least liable to be reproduced in chil- 
dren. Added to these considerations the further liability that 
the proclivities of ancestors more or less remote, on either 
side, even though the} r may have seemingly leaped over inter- 
vening generations, may unexpectedly reappear in children 
without apparent cause, (but surely not without actual cause, 
could it only be detected,) and we find abundant explanations 
of the prevalent state oi things, without discrediting the idea 
that improvement is practicable. 

HELP IS AT HAND. 

Notwithstanding, then, all the sad experience of common 
life, in suffering the ills entailed upon us by our progenitors 
and in entailing the same upon our offspring, there are reasons 
for the firm conviction that provision exists in the constitution 
of things for the overcoming of hereditary evils, so far, at 
least, that if, transmitted at all, it shall be in only an amelior- 
ated instead of an intensified form; if, in fact, they may no 
be entirely eradicated in ourselves. There is help at hand to 
aid us in this work, if we sincerely seek and intelligently 
apply the agencies within our reach. 

Passing by, for the present, the abundant promises of such 
aid set forth in the Christian scriptures, (in which, perhaps, 
many readers, for various reasons, may repose little confi- 
dence,) let us see what ground exists for hope in the great 
3c 



22 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

system of things in which we live, and a part of which we 
are — those indisputable scriptures which are written in the 
laws of the universe and of our own being. 

First, it seems evident, on careful reflection, that the 
great forces of nature, the life-currents of the universe, tend 
to health rather than to disease — to physical, mental, and 
moral soundness, rather than to their opposites. Otherwise, 
deterioration, degradation, must have been the constant ten- 
dency of the race in all the past, and utter extinction must 
long ere this have been reached. On the contrary, it is gen- 
erally conceded that notwithstanding all the ignorance, dis- 
ease, vice, and corruption that have existed through all his- 
toric time, an actual, though slow, improvement has taken 
place in both the physical and moral status of the human 
race at large within the historic period. 

Dr. B. TV". Richardson, F. R. S., of England, in a recent 
address, after showing from" statistics a marked increase in 
general longevity of human life in England and France in the 
last two hundred years, says: " Side by side with these facts 
of the statist we detect other facts which show that in the 
progress of civilization the actual organic strength and build 
of the man and woman increases. The stalwart Englishman 
of to-day can neither get into the armor nor be placed in the 
sarcophagi of those sons of men who were accounted the 
heroes of the infantile life of the human world." A similar 
progress as regards moral attributes, such as the love of jus- 
tice, kindness, toleration, &c, is apparent from even a very 
superficial knowledge of history. 

The general tendency of nature to health is also seen in 
what is termed the vis niedicatrix Jiaturce — the recuperative 
force of nature — that power present in all living organisms 
which tends at once to heal every wound and to cure 
every disease, and which accomplishes these results when 
no thwarted by obstacles too great to be overcome. Drugs 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 2'> 

and potions never heal; the most they do is to facilitate the 
operations of this inherent recuperative force. 

In other words, it appears tliat health and moral excellence 
are normal to human brings, while disease and evil are abnormal. 
The former are in harmony with the great forces of the uni- 
Merse, while the latter are antagonistic to these forces, whose 
constant tendency is to overcome and remove them. 

Xow it has heen demonstrated, in the scientific propagation 
of animals, that abnormal characteristics are far less per- 
sistent in transmission than are normal ones. The tendency 
of nature's forces is to maintain the normal type. The same 
law doubtless obtains in the human species. The law that 
" like begets like" is thus subject to a modifying principle, 
and one that is full of hope for suffering humanity. Not 
alone do the evils of our nature tend to reproduce themselves, 
but by virtue of this natural reversion to whatis normal, health- 
ful, improving, the goods and excellences have a still better 
chance of survival — provided adverse influences can be kept in 
abeyance, and that the salutary life-currents of the universe 
shall be unobstructed. 

How, then, may this be done? The answer is: First, by 

RIOIIT LIVING. 

We must cease to nourish the germs of physical disease 
and moral evil implanted in us by our progenitors, and avoid 
generating more of the same in ourselves. To do this we 
must cease those unphysiological habits of diet and regimen in 
general, and those impure habits of thought and feeling, in 
which such germs have their origin. In other words, we 
must learn the laws or conditions of physical and moral health, 
and conform our lives to them. 

To be more specific, we must cease to rain our stomachs 
and destroy our digestive powers by the use of indigestible 
hot bread, pastry, greasy food, complicated and highly-spiced 



24 PRE- X AT A L CULTURE. 

dishes, and all the many abominations of modern unhygienic 
cookery. We must abstain from slop-fed swine's flesh, that 
prolific generator of scrofula and PrioMna, and from the flesh 
of all animals slaughtered in diseased conditions, or treated 
after slaughtering in such a manner as to fill it with disease-pro- 
ducing germs — and this will exclude nearly all the flesh meats 
sold in our city shambles, whether fresh, salted, or dried. 
4In fact, so general has become the practice of fattening ani- 
mals for slaughter by artificial and disease generating pro- 
cesses or of slaughtering them after transportation for long 
slistances, subject to maddening tortures from hunger and 
thirst, over-crowding and terror, that the only safety is in total 
abstinence from butchers' meat.) We must also abjure those 
i-ommon narcotic and alcoholic beverages, (as tea, coffee, 
fteer, wines, etc.,) which, under the guise of stimulating, 
only weaken and lower the tone of the nervous system, 
creating a demand for more and more of the same deceptive 
stimuli, until the unfortunate victim comes to imagine them 
"necessaries of life." We must beware, too, of inhaling 
the foul atmospheres of unventilated apartments, crowded 
assemblies, and miasmatic localities, which are full of 
morbific germs. And, on the other hand, we must learn to 
content ourselves with the simple, nutritious, and healthful 
foods, chiefly from the vegetable kingdom, (including, of 
oourse, the cereals, fruits, and nuts,) which experience shows 
most conducive to bodily soundness, mental vigor, and moral 
puiity; we must be much in the open air; exercise duly all 
parts of the muscular system; dress rationally instead of 
fashionably; bathe often and thorough^, in order to rid the 
system of effete matters which become poisonous by reten- 
tion in the pores of the skin; and, in short, must practice 
all those rules of hygiene which sanitary science has found 
lequisite to the highest bodily health. So much, at least , 
must commend itself to the good sense of every reader. 



PRE XATAL CULTURE. w 2.~ 

The matter of dress, above alluded to, is of far greater 
importance to general right living — not merely during the 
period of pregnancy, but through all the previous life — than 
most people think ; so great, indeed, as to justify further re- 
mark in this connection. Any method of compressing the. 
body about the waist, chest, or abdomen tends, as everyone 
can perceive, to crowd the abdominal viscera down upon the 
delicate parts located in the pelvic region, producing irrita- 
tion, inflammations, and various " female weaknesses." This 
devitalizes the organs of reproduction, and in greater or less 
degree unfits them for their proper function when called into 
use. It also greatly increases the labor and dangers of child- 
bearing. Besides, such compression, by either sex, interferes 
with the free circulation of the blood, tending to congest the 
pelvic organs, and thus to stimulate inordinate sexual excite- 
ment, leading to wasteful excesses. These tendencies are 
further aggravated by the wearing of an excessive amount of 
clothing about those portions of the bod} 7 ", as often required 
by fashion's dictates, keeping them at too high a temperature. 
.Men are less addicted to this practice of compression thasi are 
women, yet the custom of dispensing with suspenders and 
tightening the lower garments above the hips is becoming 
somewhat prevalent among young men. Corsets, even, are 
worn by some effeminate exquisites. Such fashions are 
unnatural and irrational, and will be discarded by all who are 
seeking a true life. 

It is plain to be seen that one who carefully regards these 
conditions of health stands in a far different relation to the 
life-giving, health-imparting forces of the universe .from that 
occupied by one who, through a disregard of these conditions, 
is constantly thwarting the recuperative tendencies of nature, 
and is nourishing and adding to the morbid proclivities derived 
from ancestry. The former is co-operating with the beneficent 
forces of the univ< rs? on the side of health and improvement; 



26 PRE-NATAL CtlLTURE. 

the latter is continually antagonizing the same forces on the 
side of disease and depravation. In the former the tenden- 
cies to health are likely to become positive or ascendant, and 
hence more liable to be transmitted ; in the latter the proclivi- 
ties to disease are kept in such constant activity that they are 
almost sure to reproduce themselves in offspring, and often 
with intensified force. 

But correct habits of diet and regimen are not the whole of 
right living. Thought and feeling should also be pure and 
elevated. There can be no question in minds well informed 
but that impure and unkind thoughts, debased, selfish and 
malevolent feelings cherished by any one, no matter how 
secretly, generate a subtle poisonous virus, which envelopes 
the person, and is more or less imparted to all who come in 
contact. Persons of keen and pure sensibilities often scent 
these impure and malignant atmospheres, and instinctively 
shrink from their possessors, they may not know why. There 
are good reasons for believing that many physical diseases, or 
at least morbid tendencies, as well as moral perversities, have 
their origin in the subtle, malign influences of impure thought 
and evil passion. At all events, it is well known that cheer- 
ful good-will and generous affections tend to promote health 
of body and mind in their possessor and all about him ; while 
selfishness, hatred, revenge, and the like, tend in the opposite 
direction. All right and pure emotions are doubtless in 
harmony with the life-forces of the universe, and thus invite 
their salutary action upon the whole system ; while im- 
pure and malevolent feelings are discordant with nature, re- 
pellant to her divine forces, and conducive to disorder and 
misery. 

Again, the healthful actions of the universal life-currents 
in our organisms may doubtless be promoted by 



PKK- NATAL CULTURE. 27 

ASPIRATION. 

This is the upward-reaching faculty of our spirits— the 
•'heavenward window" of the soul — the gateway through 
which, if held open, we may come into actual and realized 
contact with that universal life-element. before referred to, 
and which is none other than the everywhere present " Spirit 
of Good," the inmost life of all things. The possession of 
such a faculty is sufficient reason for its use. This life-ele- 
ment must surround us on every hand and at all times, as does 
the atmosphere we breathe ; and as the act of physical respir- 
ation is necessary to the reception of the life-giving element 
of the air, so soul aspiration is necessary to the reception of 
that subtler and more vital element, which is the life of life. 

True, a certain degree of aspiration may and doubtless does 
exist, instinctively and unconsciously with all persons attended 
by a corresponding degree of influx of the universal life-ele- 
ment, without which, probably, physical life could not be 
maintained. So a low grade of physical life and health may 
and does exist where only a partial inflation of the physical 
lungs takes place, instinctively and unconsciously, and that 
even in an impure atmosphere. This is the case with thou- 
sands of people who dwell in unventilated apartments, often 
ignorant that they so much as have lungs needing to be inflated. 
Yet all well-informed persons know that a far higher quality 
of life and health may be enjoyed through the intelligent 
practice of full respiration in a pure atmosphere. Corre- 
spondingly, no doubt, a much higher, fuller influx of the 
universal spiritual life-element may be received, through 
intelligent, earnest exercise of conscious aspiration, imparting 
higher vigor to the spiritual nature, and through that to the 
physical body, since the life of the body is from the spirit. 

This view of the rationale of aspiration and its uses, in one 
direction at least, it is believed cannot be successfully contro- 



28 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

verted, and it is commended to the thoughtful consideratioo 
of those who may have doubts as to the utility of prayer. 
If well founded, then it follows that here is accessible an ex- 
haustless source of aid for human improvement, especially 
effective when sought in conjunction with an intelligent and 
careful regard for hygienic laws. 

Should it be alleged that many devout people have prayed 
long and earnestly for deliverance from hereditary maladies 
and other conscious imperfections, and have prayed in vain, 
it may be replied that possibly they may have failed at the 
same time to understand and apply the proper physical means 
alike necessary to the desired result. They may have still 
participated, ignorantly, perhaps, in habits and practices 
which have counteracted all the beneficial effects of their 
aspirations. Such, at least, has been the evident fact in in- 
stances known to the writer. Of course, no improvement 
could reasonably be expected under such conditions. Fred- 
erick Douglass, the noted orator and editor, late United States 
marshal for the District of Columbia, relates that while a 
slave in Maryland he was one day devoutly praying, as he 
often had done, for Divine interposition to give him the 
boon of freedom, when he heard a voice as from the skies 
say to him, "Pray with your legs, Frederick ! Pray with 
your legs!" At length, overcoming the conscientious scru- 
ples which had been religiously instilled into his mind 
against helping himself to liberty, he prayed with his legs', and 
the prayer was effectual. So, would we escape from the 
thraldom of hereditary disease or moral imperfections, and 
attain the enjoyment of a larger life and nobler freedom, we 
must not only aspire earnestly for Divine help, but use in- 
telligently and persistently all the means appropriate to the 
end. 

This may not be attained in a moment, a week, or a year. 
Time may be required to produce the physiological changes 



PBE-NATAL Cl'LTUKK. 21> 

that may be requisite. Possibly there are cases in which full 
deliverance may never be attainable in the body. Yet, some- 
where in the boundless universe of God, no doubt, this boon 
is for all who earnestly seek it, and it lies unquestionably in 
the direction of sincere aspiration and faithful obedience to 
the laws of our being. 

FAITH A ItECUPERATIVE AGENCY. 

There can be no question, furthermore, that a firm faith in 
the desired result, or " assurance of the thing hoped for," 
will aid in securing its attainment. The alleged pow 7 er of 
faith is often sneered at by shallow people as a chimera of 
fanaticism. But they make a great mistake. Its potency as 
a therapeutic agency is now acknowledged by the ablest and 
most scientific physicians. One of the most skillful medical 
men of modern times, who is acknowledged to stand at the 
head of his profession in the treatment of nervous disorders — 
the famous Dr. Brown-Sequard — not long since said in a pub- 
lic lecture: " If we physicians, who treat patients every day, 
bail the power to make them believe that they are to be- 
cured, especially if we could name the time for it, it would 
be a great element in success. I have succeeded sometimes, 
and I can say that I succeeded more than formerly, because 
I have myself the faith that I can in giving faith obtain a 
cure." 

There need be no mystery about this. Faith implies ex- 
pectation of the thing believed in; and expectation not only 
invites the free action of the inherent recuperative forces of 
the system, but also opens the gateway for a fuller influx of 
those salvatory potencies of the universe before alluded to, 
which surround us on every side. And when faith can take 
the form of an unfaltering trust in an over-brooding Provi- 
dence, an Almighty Parent who lovingly cares for all 1 His 
children, its power is doubly great. 



30 PRE-XATAL CULTURE. 

All persons may not be gifted with the power to exercise 
this trust in unseen agencies; but those who are may regard 
it as both proper and rational that they should avail them- 
selves of its aid, despite the doubts and sneers of the faith- 
less. They will find, doubtless, that as their faith is, so will 
be the result to them. Faith, moreover, like every other 
human faculty, is capable of cultivation, so that those Avho 
lack may by proper means obtain an increase*. The mere 
possibility that through the means thus suggested the germinal 
elements of disease and of moral evil in our own natures may 
be either eradicated or rendered inert, so that they shall not 
be transmitted to others, while, on the other hand, the forces 
of health and of good shall become ascendant, and thus likely 
to be imparted to offspring— such a possibility, even, should 
be a powerful stimulus to strive for its realization. 

HIGHER POSSIBILITIES. 

But there are still greater possibilities than even this. Faith, 
with pure aspiration or earnest yearning for the highest good, 
is not only a potent, uplifting force in itself, but it is no doubt 
a great help to produce a condition of receptivity or openness 
to the action of supernal powers, which renders possible many 
things that to a groveling and blind materialism are not attain- 
able. It has already been abundantly shown that the embryo 
child may be powerfully affected and moulded by the mental 
and psychical action of the mother. It is plain, therefore, 
that any mental or psychical influence acting upon the mother 
will, through her, also strongly affect her offspring, and 
be likely to shape its future characteristics. The following 
fact, illustrative of this point, was contributed by the 
author to the columns of The Alpha some months since, 
but is worthy of repetition here for the important lesson it 
teaches: 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. :>1 

"Not long since I met with a venerable lady, of marked 
intelligence and spirituality, who bad formerly been for many 
years a preacher in the Society of Friends. From her 1 
obtained a narralion of some interesting tacts in her pre-natal 
history, as she had derived them from her mother. They 
were to the following effect: 

" Some months previous to her birth, and while anticipat- 
ing that event, her mother, who was a Quakeress, had become 
exceedingly despondent and oppressed with gloomy fore- 
bodings, in consequence of severe domestic trials. Poverty, 
privation and disgrace seemed to stare her in the face, in con- 
nection with this expected increase of family. While in a 
state of mind bordering on despair, a prominent Friend called 
upon her one day, bringing with him tw T o or three copies of a 
new book just published. This was the journal of a distin- 
guished Quaker preacher, then recently deceased, who had 
passed through great vicissitudes and dangers in the perform- 
ance of the mission to which he had felt himself called, but 
had been wonderfully supported through all by an unfaltering 
trust in God. 

" The mother at once seized upon one of these books with 
a strong interior feeling that in it was help and hope for her. 
She obtained a copy, and almost literally devoured its con- 
tents. It brought to her the needed help. In its perusal she 
seemed to be lifted up into intimate sympathy with its author, 
and to partake of the same calm trust and unfaltering faith 
which had sustained him in life. Her fears and forebodings 
all disappeared, never again to return, and she received in 
some way a premonition that her forthcoming child would be 
a daughter, and would prove a great help and comfort to her 
through life. 

" This premonition proved true. The daughter at an early 
age showed a remarkable predisposition to spiritual concerns, 
and in due time became an acceptable preacher in the society, 
notably resembling in many respects the one whose biography 
had so deeply impressed the mother during the period of ges- 
tation; and she was able to provide a pleasant home for her 
mother for more than titty years of her later life." 

The comments appended to the above narrative can hardly 
be improved upon here, and hence they are copied entire: 



32 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

"This narrative is valuable for the suggestion it gives of 
possible aids that may be available by mothers in the most 
important work of pre-natal culture. The psychological 
influence which a mother may exert over the embryo in exalted 
mental and spiritual states, induced by reading, meditation or 
aspiration, is now generally understood and admitted, and it 
is surely a powerful instrumentality for good. But it is pos- 
sible there is something more than this. Readers who believe 
in a future life of love and service for those who have passed 
within the veil — that they who have delighted to labor for 
and bless humanity while in the flesh may and do become 
angels to minister to those they leave behind, after they have 
passed the portal of the higher life — certainly such need have 
no difficulty in supposing that beDign immortals will be glad to 
render their services, when practicable and desired, in so mo- 
mentous a work as the ante-natal shaping and moulding of a 
human being for a career of distinguished usefulness on earth. 

" The mother above alluded to became deeply conscious at 
times, as stated, of close rapport and soul- communion with 
the esteemed friend whose life story so uplifted her mind. 
Many others have had similar experiences regarding departed 
friends. Nothing is more reasonable than that two souls thus 
sympathizing should gravitate to each other, even though one 
has thrown off the incumbrance of the flesh. And if the de- 
parted preacher was thus drawn to be actually present with this- 
mother at this important period, it would be scarcely avoid- 
able that he, through her, should exercise a powerful psychi- 
cal influence over the then forming embryo. And this would 
explain why the daughter developed a tendency to become a 
preacher of the same type as himself. 

" I might add that this lady informed me that in later years 
she had received evidence which fully convinced her, not 
only that such psychical influence was exerted by the disem- 
bodied preacher, but that he purposely selected her while in 
the fetal state, watched over and prepared her for the special 
service of becoming his mouth-piece in completing his earthly 
work, and in due time had employed her for that purpose. 
And this fully accounts for the completeness with which she 
had represented him in her public ministrations. 

"To some persons such a conviction will doubtless seem 
wild and incredible ; but to the thoughtful and spiritually 
minded, I am sure, there is nothing intrinsically improbable 
in it. If there is any truth in the ancient promise, ' He shall 



PRE- N A T A L CV L T V R E . 3 3 

give His angels charge over thee,' &c, in what more impor- 
tant matter can their guardian care be exercised than in that 
of assisting a conscientious mother in her most responsible 
work of moulding a young immortal for a life of usefulness 
awl honor ? 

'" AYhen mothers shall come to feel the true dignity of the 
ortice of maternity, (if worthily entered upon,) they may know 
that all the powers of good in the universe are on their side, 
and ready to contribute to a noble and successful issue." 

In view of such experiences, it seems not too much to believe, 
as many do, that through the appropriate exercise of faith and 
aspiration, especially if accompanied by right living in all 
respects, intending mothers may attain a condition of plas- 
ticity to holy influences from the unseen world — which are 
ever seeking to improve and bless our race — that may result 
in the production of offspring of a type superior to average 
humanity. It is not impossible that such a state of self-abne- 
gation and sweet surrender to the will of the Highest may be 
reached, as that this higher and wiser Will may come in and 
work to grander and completer results than the most intelli- 
gent mother of herself would be capable-of effecting. In this 
way, it may be, the plan of self-training and positive endeavor, 
to be suggested in subsequent pages of this treatise, may be 
largely superseded by what is better. Surely, thus to become 
a willing and plastic instrument through which the Highest 
may work unobstructedly "both to will and to do," and to 
co-operate energetically with the Infinite Will, is doubtless 
the most desirable state to which a mortal can aspire. 

It seems not improbable that in the w T ay thus suggested, 
that is, through the instrumentality of matrons specially 
receptive to these hallowing influences, no matter how lowly 
their^estate in other regards, nor even how ignorant of the law 
or process involved, have been gestated and brought forth the 
'grandest and noblest souls that have illuminated the pathway 



34 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

of humanity in all time. She whom all generations with one 
consent have called "blessed " — the mother of the Nazarene — 
appears to have been a prominent example. The following 
passages from her song of thanksgiving (Luke i, 46-55) are 
highly significant : 

"■ My soul doth magnify the Lord, 
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. 
For he hath regarded the low estate of his hand-maiden ; 
For, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed: 
For he that is mighty hath done me great things, 
And holy is his name, 
And his mercy is on them that fear him 
From generation to generation. 
He hath showed strength with his arm : 

He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts ; 
He hath put down the mighty from their seats, 
And exalted them of low degree. ,, 

If it be a fact that, in the manner above indicated, offspring 
of a type superior to their parents, either physically, mentally 
or morally, are produced, it by no means follows that the law 
of heredity ("like begets like") is contravened. This law 
only receives a higher expression. Through the agency of 
the parents, and especially of the mother, as the result of 
pure aspirations, strong faith, right living, with other favor- 
ing conditions, better germinal elements are secreted and 
brought in conjunction, and these are vitalized from a higher 
spiritual source. Improved specimens of humanity aie a 
natural sequence. 

This suggests the probable law or method of ascending 
progress in the evolution of not only the human race, but of 
all living forms on this planet. Higher types may have been 
successively generated, not by some mysterious process of 
accidental or spontaneous evolution, but by the bringing to- 
gether, under favoring conditions, of improved germinal ele- • 
ments — improved perhaps by the infusion of subtle spiritual 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 35 

essences that introduce new qualities. This process may have 
been, not merely chance-directed, as some imagine, hut, on 
the contrary, presided over by intelligent and wise design, 
working on a broad field to determinate ends. " Differentia- 
tion of species" may, indeed, have been effected by the 
•• environment," as claimed by materialistic philosophers; but 
t le presence of an all- surrounding spiritual life-element in 
the universe (the existence of which seems almost a necessary 
truth of intuition) is an important factor of the environment 
which is generally ignored by this class of thinkers. 
If the foregoing suggestions are well founded, then there is 

HOPE FOR ALL, 

based in the very constitution of things. Improvement for 
the individual and for the race is possible, and that without 
limit. The grand energies of the universe are in its favor. 
In our ills and weaknesses, our conscious baseness and evil 
proclivities, inherited though they may have been from a long 
line of ancestry, we need not lie prone and helpless, with no 
alternative (except in rare instances) but either to transmit these 
hateful qualities to our offspring, or to refrain from the su- 
preme joy of reproducing ourselves. Help, purification, re- 
generation are within reach, in most cases at least, if we will 
but avail ourselves of the means. 

A PARENTAL PROVIDENCE. 

It would not be difficult to show, without appealing to what 
is termed "revealed religion," the strong probability, if not 
certainty, that this helpful and uplifting Energy which has 
been referred to as encompassing us on every hand, is some- 
thing more than a blind, unintelligent, unsympathetic "force;" 
that it is in fact a Parental Providence, a brooding tenderness, 



36 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

which yearns with unfailing love to bless, to enlighten, to 
redeem from every ill, to enrich with every good. But to 
argue this question at length would be foreign to our present 
purpose; suffice it to say that the belief or intuition of such 
a providence seems to have been consentaneous in the best 
and grandest souls that have ever dwelt in human clay, those 
whose hearts have been attuned to feel the sympathetic throbs 
of the Universal Heart." 

Whether this benign power be conceived of asa " Cosmical 
Life," in which we, and all we see around us, have our "un- 
searchable roots," as expressed by a leading scientist of the 
day, (Tyndall,) or as an all-embracing " Over-soul, within 
which every man's particular being is contained," as a 
modern transcendental philosopher (Emerson) has phrased 
it; or as a universal Parent, a personal being, with attributes 
sufficiently expansive to include all minor personalities within 
his own, according to the best interpretation of the Christian 
teachings; or as a vast assemblage of apotheosized human 
spirits, perfected in purity, wisdom, and goodness, acting as 
vicegerents of the Supreme Will and Wisdom in this rudi- 
mental sphere, as many in all ages have believed — whichever 
of these conceptions be adopted as most satisfactory to 
the individual mind, a like result follows, namely, that in 
the constitution of things which exists, Id rally aid from a 
sujwrior source is available to all who seek it rightly in all im- 
portant human concerns. In other words, that we are not 
orphans, held in the grasp of an unpitying fate, but children, 
watched over and cared for with parental love and far-seeing- 
wisdom. 

Can we suppose that this parental oversight extends to the 
matter of begetting and rearing of offspring ? Why should 
it not ? Is not this one of the most important of human con- 
cerns? The Great Teacher of Judea, whose intuitive soul 
seems to have been most deeply permeated with a sense of 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 37 

the parental character of the Infinite Life, taught that It, or 
He, takes note of so trifling an event as the falling of a 
sparrow, and even numbers the very hairs of our heads. We 
may yet perhaps regard this as an extravagant example of 
Oriental hyperbole, yet if it embodies even a grain of truth we 
must infer that so momentous an occurrence as the initiation 
of an immortal being, to exist for good or ill through the 
eternities, whose life is of vastly greater value than all the 
sparrows in the world, is not too insignificant for supernal 
cognizance. The preponderance of the argument in favor 
of such cognizance is in the ratio of the value of the whole 
human being as compared with that of a single hair. Why, 
then,[should not the origin of eveiy human being be at- 
tended by 

THE DIVINE OVERSHADOWING? 

The record informs us that in the case of Jesus himself, 
when his mother questioned the announcement of the angel 
that she should bring forth a son, " and He shall be great, 
and shall be called the Son of the Highest," she was assured 
that,"[the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power 
of the Highest shall overshadow thee, therefore also that 
holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the 
Son of God." 

This has, indeed, been generally regarded as an altogether 
exceptional experience in the history of humanity, and one 
never to be repeated. But was it really and wholly such ? 
Why should not every mother feel the uplifting and purify- 
ing presence of the Divine Spirit, and be overshadowed by 
the power of the Highest in preparing herself for and in dis- 
charging the most sacred of all functions ? Most surely it 
may be so, if she earnestly aspire for it. And why, then, as a 
result in accordance with the law of psychical impression, 



38 PEE-XATAL CULTUEE. 

should not every child born be a holy one, and worthy to be 
called a son or daughter of the Highest ? Verily, this might 
be so, were the human instruments reverently to yield them- 
selves to the will of the Highest, that this will, instead of the 
will of the flesh, may be done in and through them. 

SPECIAL INTERIOR LEADINGS. 

Facts and experiences that have come to the writer's knowl- 
edge, as well as general considerations of desirableness, point 
to the conclusion that a woman who earnestly seeks to be led 
by the Divine Spirit, or by her own " spiritual intuitions/' or 
the " inward monitor," or "inner light," if any prefer these 
terms, in the important matters of choosing a conjugal 
partner, and of entrance upon the maternal functions, will be 
guided by a wisdom higher than herself. If she will care- 
fully shut out all other voices and influences, and listen only 
to the oracle within the innermost shriDe, she may be led in- 
fallibly to choose the proper companion, and at the proper 
time will find herself being prepared, in body and mind, by a 
power wiser than herself, for assuming the noble duty of 
motherhood. 

And until this interior leading, this fulness of preparation, 
with the Divine overshadowing, is felt no one should even 
venture upon the sacred function — certainly never against the 
voice of the inward monitor. It is profanation, sacrilege thus 
to do ! Unquestionably it is because, amid the clamors of 
passion, the blandishments of flattery, the urgency of unwise 
persuasion, or the pressure of other unworthy considerations, 
the "still, small voice" is unheeded, the divine guidance un- 
sought, that so many wretched mis-alliances are formed, and 
such numbers of unwelcome, malformed, diseased, sin-cursed 
and unholy offspring are brought into the world. 

That the masculine parent, if he also seeks to obey the 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. Rf> 

monitions of the spirit rather than the desires of the flesh, 
may experience a corresponding- internal preparation for 
paternity, is doubtless true — though men for the most part are 
less conscious of these delicate spiritual leadings than are 
women. Hence men, as a general rule, should defer to women 
in these matters, especially to those of keen spiritual intui- 
tions. But the preparation on man's part, if earnestly sought, 
may he no less real, though it be less fully sensed. And' on 
no consideration should one ever enter the sacred relation 
whence parentage may result without due preparation in 
himself. 

Especially should he refrain from ever intruding, by either 
demand or solicitation, against the intuitions of the partner. 
All such intrusions are outrages of the most flagrant character, 
the same in essence as positive physical violence, and the 
same within as without the legal marriage relation. Offspring- 
begotten when any degree of reluctance or want of prepara- 
tion exists on the part of the mother, are robbed of a portion 
of their birth-right, and to that degree incapacitated for the 
full enjoyment of existence. That birth-right includes a ful 
and loving welcome to the world! Without this, what a piti- 
able object is a child '. — virtually orphaned and outcast from 
its earliest heart-throb, liable to be followed through life by a 
sense of homelessness and friendlessness, a life-long mourner 
in a vale of tears ! But a child wisely desired, intelligently 
prepared for, begotten in sweet mutual love, properly cultured 
in embryo, and at length joyfully welcomed to loving arms, 
such a one is an object of interest and joy to all humanity. 
At the advent of such, even though born in a stable and 
cradled in a manger, well may choiring angels sing, " Glory 
to God in the highest, on earth peace and good will to men." 
For of such are the wise teachers, the noble examples, the 
oving saviors of mankind ! 



40 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 



ADAPTATIONS. 



Tliere arc reasons for believing that many of the ailments 
and suffering commonly incident to maternity — such as the 
nausea, the "longings," the general physical disturbances, as 
well as the mental and moral disorders sometimes exhibited — 
result from either unwelcome and undesired impregnation at 
an improper time, or from a conjunction of unadapted ele- 
ments ; that is, if persons not adapted in the finer constituents 
of their organisms come together in thai intimate relation. 
When this is the case what wonder that internal rebellion and 
general physical disorder follow ? 

If woman was made for maternity, as the conformation of 
her organism and the normal tendency of her strongest in- 
stincts, with few exceptions, show, then it is evident that the 
proper exercise of this function should be attended by the 
highest health, enjoyment and happiness. And thus it is in 
many cases. That it is not so in any case indicates that some- 
thing is wrong, that the kindly purpose of nature has been 
thwarted at some point. 

This question of adaptations or compatibilities between those 
who would enter the parental relation, though often sneered 
at by short-sighted moralists, deserves greater attention than 
it has yet received. The popular notion is that if two adult 
persons are only of opposite sexes and not idiotic or within 
certain legally prescribed relations of consanguinity, they 
are fit to marry and to beget offspring. This is a great mis- 
take. There are finer cenditions of adaptation and of incon- 
gruity which may not appear on the surface, but are inwoven 
in the very texture of being : and which, if disregarded, will 
assert themselves in their own time and way as surely as will 
the laws of chemical affinity and repulsion. These are 
nature's or God's laws of marriage and divorce, arjd where 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 41 

they are unheeded in a legal contract, it cannot lie said that 
"God hath joined " the parties together. The converse of 
the precept enunciated by Jesus is no doubt equally binding, 
namely, what God hath put asunder by inherent repugnances, 
let no man or woman attempt to join together. 

But so little is this subject understood that perhaps few, if 
any. can judge with infallible accuracy, from external indi- 
cations, what individuals are or are not properly adapted for 
this relation. Yet it is believed that a patient waiting for 
interior guidance, a listening to the voice of the soul's intui- 
tions, rather than to external inducements of any kind, will 
be found, especially on the part of women, a tolerably safe 
guide as to these finer adaptations, enabling them to determine 
wisely not only when but whom to marry. 

Other important details of preparation might be dwelt 
upon, but as these have been presented to some extent in a 
previous treatise, The Better Way, they will not be repeated 
here. 

METHODS OF EMBRYO CULTURE. 

Should such preparations for parentage as have been sug- 
gested in preceding pages be in any good measure attained, it 
is probable that results of a very desirable character would 
be realized without recourse to any detailed plan of embryo 
culture as outlined in what is to follow. But yet it is appar- 
ent that if these are succeeded by the wise and judicious use 
of such further means as are within the power of parents, and 
especially of mothers during gestation, still more complete 
results may be assured. We will, therefore, proceed to give 
some outline of a course of regimen and self -training, which 
seems adapted, in accordance with the apparent laws of 
physical and psychical influence, to effect most favorably the 
character and qualities of the child. 

The importance of order in the method employed has 



42 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

already been indicated. What that order shall be, the mother 
may doubtless infer, in a general way, by observing the order 
in which the several classes of faculties naturally unfold and 
arrive at maturity after birth, during the periods of child- 
hood, youth, etc. Let us then attempt a classification of 
human instincts and faculties in the general order of their de- 
velopment, This appears to be somewhat as follows: 

First. The Vital and Self -Preservative Instincts, which 
form the basis of individual existence, are the earliest to 
manifest themselves. The infant simply eats and grows. 

Second. The Domestic and Social Affections ordinarily 
come next into prominent activity. The child begins to love 
its parents and care-takers. 

Third. The Perceptive and Observing Faculties, with 
which are associated the Retentive and Recording are next 
markedly developed. The child observes and remembers. 

Fourth. The Constructive and Beautifying Faculties next 
display themselves. The child shows a disposition to make 
things and to ornament. 

Fifth. The Directive and Regulative Faculties, including 
the reflective intellect and the moral powers, come into ac- 
tivity. The youth begins to reason, and to feel strongly the 
force of moral obligations. 

Sixth. The Humane or Philanthropic impulse asserts its 
sway; and, 

Seventh. The Aspirational, Worshipful, orUpwardlooking 
tendency usually comes latest to maturity. 

It is by no means claimed that human development in any 
case follows strictly this order, nor that it should be followed 
by mothers in any such rigid way as to exclude all attention 
to any one department out of the course named On the con- 
trary, the several steps or stages will merge more or less into 
each other, and some exercises will doubtless be at all times 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 43 

in place. But it is plainly out of natural order, for instance, 
to stimulate the activity of the Reasoning faculties before the 
Vital forces are well established, or even before the Percep- 
tive or Observing powers have been duly cultivated. Such a 
process would be in reverse of the order of nature, and its 
tendency is to produce physical weaklings and intellectual 
dreamers, who incline to ignore the solid facts of existence 
and live in the regions of speculation. A vigorous body is 
desirable as the basis of a vigorous mind, and habits of ac- 
curate observation are an essential pre-requisite to sound 
reasoning. 

Again, it is evident that in any effort by a mother to culti- 
vate her offspring in embryo through her own mental and 
physical action, she needs to give more especial attention to 
those desirable qualities, faculties or tendencies which may be 
deficient in herself, or in the father, and most especially such 
as may happen to be deficient in both. Those powers whose 
activity is in excess in either parent, and those also whose ac- 
tivity is spontaneous and easy, are likely to be transmitted 
without special effort. The more difficult it is, then, to ex- 
ercise any desirable faculty in either parent, the greater the 
need of its exercise in the mother during gestation, in order that 
the offspring may not suffer from the deficiency. 

To give specific directions for the culture of each and every 
faculty, when deficient, would extend this treatise far beyond 
its proposed limits, but a few general suggestions will enable 
the intelligent reader to clearly apprehend the method, and to 
make the application as required in the individual case. 

Every one can readily understand that any oft-repeated 
exercise of muscle or of mental faculty (unless over-done) 
tends to develop and strengthen such muscle or faculty. It 
does this in the mother, and, if the law of fetal molding has 
been correctly stated in the foregoing pages, it must have the 



44 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

same effect through the mother upon the embryo. For ex- 
ample, if the mother (at the proper stage of pregnancy) takes 
care to exercise her own muscles freely by walking, light 
gymnastics, bathing, etc. , the probabilities are, other things 
being favorable, that she will thereby not only improve her own 
health, but at the same time' confer upon her child a vigorous 
muscular system. If she, at the proper time, exercises ber 
mind somewhat persistently, for example, in reckoning or 
calculating numbers, she will thereby increate her own 
arithmetical faculty, and simultaneously increase the mole- 
cular deposits in that part of the fetal brain which is.the organ 
of calculation, according to modern phrenology — at all events 
will be likely to confer upon her child the power to become 
a good arithmetician. If the mother spends any considerable 
portion of her time in philosophic study or thought, in efforts 
to understand the "whys and wherefores of things," she 
thereby exercises and expands her own cause-discerning 
faculty {Causality), and insures its activity in her offspring. 
So, if she practices thoughtful and unselfish kindness toward 
those about her, and is benevolent to the needy and the suffer- 
ing, she enstamps the same noble trait {Benevolence) upon the 
unborn; and if she at all times firmly adheres to the right be- 
cause it is right, she keeps her own conscience ever clear, 
and imparts to the coming one that priceless quality, Consci- 
entiousness. So of all the other faculties. 

In short, reading, thought, conversation, or any employ- 
ment which occupies the mind in any special direction, and 
thus calls into prolonged exercise anj T specific faculty or set 
of faculties in the mother, must tend to modify the'mental and 
cerebral development of the embryo in such a way as in all 
probability will determine, to a large extent, its capacities 
and tendencies in all after life. The whole matter is thus 
simple and comprehensible to the most ordinary capacity. 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 45 

Where any one faculty or tendency is in excess of a well- 
balanced character, in either of the parents, and deficient in 
the other, it may reasonably be expected that the excess on 
the one side may be counterbalanced by the lack on the 
other — except when, as is sometimes the case, one parent 
overwhelmingly preponderates over the other in imparting 
the characteristics of the child — a result due, perhaps, to the 
possession of greater physical or mental vigor at'the time of 
inception. 

Where the same faculties or tendencies are in excess in 
both parents, the probabilities are that the excess will be in- 
creased in the offspring to the extent, perhaps, of creating a 
deformity or an undesirable one-sidedness ot character. In 
such a case, the propriety of restraint, instead of culture, 
would seem to be apparent. But it is suggested that such 
restraint may best be sought indirectly; that is, by special 
efforts to cultivate and exercise the opposite or ^counter- 
balancing faculties, rather than. to attempt repression by 
direct exercise of the will on the excessive tendency. For 
example, should the selfish proclivities or passions tend to^ 
inordinate activity, endeavor to cultivate and exercise more 
fully the faculties classed as Directive and Regulative — that 
is, the reasoning powers, the Conscience, and Benevolence. 
This will be leveling up instead of down, thus making more 
of the whole man or woman by enlarging the better side. 
Besides, it is probable that fixing the mind upon any particular 
faculty or propensity, in an effort to repress its action by 
direct will-force, may tend, by sending the vital fluids to the 
cerebral organ of such faculty, to increase rather than 
diminish its activity; whereas, the drawing [of these fluids 
to other parts of the brain, by increasing the activity of the 
latter, will naturally lessen the action in those which it is 
desirable to repress. This, doubtless, furnishes the reason 



46 PEE-NATAL CULTURE. 

why efforts to overcome inordinate appetites by force of will 
are so seldom successful. 

Where deficiencies exist in the same faculties in both 
parents, of course there will be required more assiduous 
attention to the means of culture by the mother, if she 
would have these deficiencies supplied, and her offspring 
saved from the disabilities and misfortunes that are likely to 
result. 

If the foregoing suggestions are at all in the right direc- 
tion, it plainly follows that it behooves all prospective parents, 
and especially mothers, who would confer upon their children 
healthful and well-balanced organisms, to first thoroughly 
know themselves. Not only should they intelligently under- 
stand their own respective physical conditions, as regards 
healthfulness, adaptation of temperaments, constitutional 
tendencies, etc., but also they should have a just estimate of 
their own mental powers and moral characteristics in all par- 
ticulars. And since few persons are competent to know them- 
. selves accurately in either of the above-named respects, it is 
well to consult with intelligent and judicious friends, or with 
competent professional advisers, if such can be found, who 
are skilled in the detection of physical, mental and moral 
characteristics, and will faithfully point out both defects and 
redundances. It may be true that there are few persons now 
to be found in any of our communities who are fully qualified 
to give needed advice in these momentous matters; but it is 
believed that as public attention shall be turned in this 
direction, and the want become felt, such advisers will 



*Readers who may desire more full directions, relative to methods 
of culture for each faculty, will And very valuable suggestions m a 
small volume entitled " How to Read Character:' by the late Dr. S. It 
Wells. (New York : 1873.) 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 47 



SrECIFIC SUGGESTIONS. 

We will now proceed to indicate some more specific meas- 
ures which seem adapted to the several successive stages into 
which embryo culture may be divided, in accordance with the 
suggestion already made regarding an orderly method of pro- 
cedure. 

First Stage. — It seems scarcely to admit of question that the 
first thing to be done, in the order of time, is to secure to the 
new immortal the basis of a good physical organization, with 
strong vital powers. If the parents, and especially the mother, 
have given proper attention to their own personal preparation 
in all respects, as hereinbefore suggested, a good beginning- 
will have been made. But the mother should endeavor by 
all means to maintain throughout the whole period of gesta- 
tion the best possible condition of bodily 'health and vigor. 
Neither too much labor nor care, nor too little, should be un- 
dertaken. During the earlier months, while the foundations, 
so to speak, of the child's physical constitution are being laid, 
open air exercise, gymnastics, bathing, riding, travel, with the 
best diet, proper dress, cheerful companionship — in short 
everything that will contribute to the highest physical vigor — 
should be availed of as far as practicable. At later stages a 
greater amount of repose and seclusion is naturally sought, 
and travel and the more active forms of exercise cannot so 
well be participated in. 

Let it be here remarked parenthetically, that it is not ex- 
pected every mother in ordinary circumstances in life will be 
able to comply with every suggestion here made. It is desira- 
ble, however, that all should know what are the best condi- 
tions required to produce the best results; and then each 
should make the nearest approximation thereto that individual 
circumstances will admit. And no argument seems neces- 



48 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

saiy to show that all should seek to secure reasonably favora- 
ble conditions before entering upon so important an undertak- 
ing as parentage. The highest welfare of the unborn, and 
not the pleasure of the parents, should be chiefly considered. 
And when neighborhoods and communities shall have come- 
to give this subject the consideration its importance demands, 
it will be found an easy matter to secure, by combination and 
co-operation, conditions which the individual means of iso- 
lated families often do not enable them to supply. In fact, 
the noble office of maternity must sometime come to be re- 
garded as a most sacred and honorable function, in the proper- 
discharge of which the whole community has a direct inter- 
est. And those who are fitted for its worthy performance, 
and who are willing intelligently and lovingly to undertake 
it, are entitled to both the profound respect and the helpful 
co-operation of all others. 

Besides, there is little question that a proper attention to 
the laws of health, as regards diet, regimen, clothing, etc., 
will secure to any well-organized and well-mated woman ex- 
emption from most, if not all, of the sufferings and dangers 
now usually considered incident to child-bearing. If it be 
true, according to popular belief, that women's "sorrows" 
in this function have been greatly "multiplied," in conse- 
quence of the first mother's transgression, it is, no doubt, 
equally true (for it rests on quite as good authority) that "*he 
shall be saved in child-bearing if they continue in faith and 
charity and holiness with sobriety." (I Tim. ii : 15.) "Holi- 
ness" should mean nothing less than wholeness, or compliance 
with all the laws of one's being. An experienced and highly 
intelligent mother, well known throughout our country — 
Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton — in a note to the writer, says: 

" In right conditions maternity will not be a period of 
weaknessT sorrow and suffering, but of joy, health and added 
power. A well-organized woman can bring a child into the 



PBE-ttATAL CULTURE. 49 

world without suffering. The idea of woman being cursed 
by Heaven in her relations of wife and mother is a monstrous 
idea, and has had a most depressing and degrading influence 
upon woman in all ages." 

The same capable matron, in one of her lectures to women 
some years since, gave the following important personal testi- 
mony : 

"I am the mother of seven children. My girlhood w T as 
spent mostly in the open air. I early imbibed the idea that a 
girl is just as good as a boy, and I carried it out, I would 
walk five miles~ before breakfast, or ride ten on horseback. 
After I was married I wore my clothing sensibly. Its weight 
hung entirely on my shoulders'! I never compressed my body 
out of its natural shape, When my first four children were 
born I suffered very little. I then made up my mind that it 
was totally unnecessary for me to suffer at all ; so I dressed 
lightly, walked every day, lived as much as possible in the 
open air, ate no condiments or spices, kept quiet, listened to 
music, looked at pictures and took proper care of myself. 
The night before the birth of the child I walked three miles. 
The child was born without a particle of pain. I bathed it 
and dressed it, and it weighed ten and a half pounds. That 
same day I dined with the family. Everybody said I would 
surely die, but I never had a relapse or a moment's incon- 
venience from it." 

The question, what constitutes the best diet during preg- 
nancy, has been fully discussed in hygienic works, and can 
not be treated at length here. The good sense of every 
reader will suggest that the diet ought to be regulated, not 
by custom or fashion, or the dictates of a perverted appetite, 
but by a thoughtful and intelligent consideration of what is 
best adapted to supply the needs and promote the healthy 
functions of the organism, with special adaptations to the 
circumstanees of the case.* 

* Since the above was written the author has met with a small but 

valuable work entitled Parturition Without Pain, by Dr. M. L. Hol- 

brook, who has adduced facts to show that a diet during pregnancy 

consisting chietlv of fruits, with such other foods as contain little or 

4 



50 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

During the earlier stages of pregnancy, as well as at all 
subsequent periods, it is desirable that the mother have at 
hand, for frequent contemplation, some of the best works of 
art, in statuaiy, or pictures, or both, as models of the beauti- 
ful and graceful in form, and of the amiable and noble in 
expression. Perhaps some one admired figure may be chosen, 
to be copied by the mother's wonderful electrotyping power 
in her living work of art; but care should be taken that it 
be one in which goodness, as well as physical beauty is bodied 
forth. 

In this is to be found one of the noblest uses of art; and 
there can be no doubt that the works of the great masters have 
had more effect than the world imagines in producing and 
multiplying forms of beauty and manliness through impres- 
sions made on the mirds of matrons. Every Bible reader is 
familiar with the shrewd plan adopted by the patriarch Jacob, 
by which he greatly multiplied the increase of cattle of a par- 
ticular description ("ring-straked, spotted, and speckled") in 
the flocks of his father-in-law, to his own gain. (Gen. xxx: 
27, etc.) "Why should not the same law be generally availed 
of for the nobler purpose of conferring forms of beauty and 
gracefulness upon human offspring? 

It is said that travelers in Italy, that land of paintings and 
sculpture, are often struck with the frequency with which the 
lovely features of the Madonna are to be seen in the faces of 

none of the phosphates (i. e., bone-making' materials), will cause the 
bones of the fetus to remain so soft and pliable till the time of birth 
that parturition will be attended with little inconvenience to the 
mother; while proper attention to other hygienic rules will secure 
immunity from most, if not all, of the ailments and dangers com- 
monly attendant upon child bearing. Of course, immediately after 
the child is born, the mother should partake freely of bone-making 
food, such as wheaten bread, milk, etc. This statement seems worthy 
of careful attention and test. The book gives a full list of foods, 
classified with reference to the amount of phosphates they contain, 
as well as much other valuable information, and should be in the 
hands of all parents. Dr. Holbrook's Eating for Strength, and Dr. 
Cowan's Science of a New Life also contain further valuable hygienic 
instructions. 



: 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 51 

children of even the uncultured peasantry. When it is re- 
membered that almost every church and chapel in that coun- 
try is provided with a representation of a Virgin and Child, 
from the hand often of some master of the noble art, and that 
these pictures are regarded with devout reverence by the 
common people, it is easy to see whence come those beautiful 
faces of Italian children. 

The several specific instincts or propensities of the Vital 
and Self-Preservative group, included in our first-class, are, 
according to the phrenological system, termed as follows: 
1. Yiiativeness, or love and tenacity of life; 3. Alimentke- 
ness, desire for an enjoyment of food; 3. Destructkeness, or 
executive power, ability to overcome obstacles; 4. Combatke- 
ness, or self-defense; 5. Acquisitiveness, or disposition to own 
and accumulate; 6. Secretkeness, tact, ability to keep one's 
own couEsel. 

This analysis and these definitions, let it be remarked, may 
be neither strictly accurate nor exhaustive, yet they may an- 
swer practical purposes until better can be furnished. And 
the same remarks apply to all the groupings and definitions 
to be hereafter given. The phrenological analysis and nomen- 
clature of instincts and faculties is used here, not because it 
is entirely satisfactory, but because it appears better adapted 
to the purpose in view than any other which the author has 
met with. 

It should be noted that none of the propensities above 
specified, when rightly defined, can be dispensed with in a 
fully rounded character. They are not evil in themselves 
nor are their organs (if such exist) "bad organs," as some 
have supposed. It is their overplus, or overaction as com- 
pared with that of others, that is bad. A deficiency in any 
one of these basic instincts of human nature constitutes in 
that particular weak and deficient character. 



52 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

Second Stage. — Next in order after the Vital instincts, and to 
some extent simultaneous with them, comes the development 
of the Domestic and Social Affections, or the Loves. These 
precede, in a general way, the manifestations of Intellect. 
That is, the child ordinarily loves before it reasons to any ex- 
tent. It would seem appropriate, therefore, that the mother, 
before applying herself to special exercises for intellectual 
culture, should see to it that any deficiencies that may exist 
in the Affectional department are provided against, as far as 
may be by appropriate self-training. If her own personal affec- 
tions are kept in lively and well-balanced exercise, she may 
expect that her offspring will be well endowed in this depart- 
ment. 

The several divisions of the Affectional group of faculties 
recognized by phrenologists are the following: 1, Amative- 
mess, or attachment to the opposite sex; 2, Conjugality, desire 
to pair, or love for the partner; 3, Parental Lore, (Philopro- 
genitiveness,) or love of children and pets; 4, Adhesiveness, 
(Friendship,) attachment to friends; 5. Inhabit iven ess, love of 
home and country. 

Third Stage. — Next in natural order of prominent activity, 
appear to come the Observing or Perceptive powers, inti- 
mately associated with which are the Communicative and 
the Retentive or Recording faculties. These, as designated 
by phrenologists, are: Individuality, ox power to individualize 
or distinguish and separately observe objects (the investi- 
gating faculty;) 2, Form, or perception of shapes, outlines, 
memory of faces, etc. ; 3, Size, the power to notice and re- 
member dimensions; 4, Weight, or perception of forces; 5, 
Color, appreciation and love of colors, tints, etc. ; 6, Order, 
love of arrangement, system; 7, Calculation, or perception 
of numbers and their relations (the arithmetical faculty;) 8, 
Eventuality, memory of events, facts, dates, etc., (the his- 






PRE-^ATAL CULTURE. 53 

toric faculty;) 9, Locality, observation and memory of places, 
scenery, direction, etc., (the geographical faculty;) 10, Time, 
sense of duration, capacity for punctuality; 11, Tune, the 
musical faculty; and 12, Language, or the power of verbal 
expression. To these are closely related the five external 
senses — Feeling, Seeing, Hearing, Taste, and Smell. 

Deficiency in any one of these faculties is not desirable — 
in some it is a sad misfortune. Few people who have not 
given the subject special attention are aware how many per- 
sons are congenitally deficient in one or more of these powei'3. 
Many children in our schools experience immense difficulty 
(often quite unappreciated by either teachers or parents) in 
learning at the outset to distinguish and remember the dif- 
ferent letters of the alphabet, and afterwards to spell words 
correctly, and to call them at sight — all resulting from a de- 
ficiency in the faculties termed Lndividuality and Form, 
Thousands have suffered the tortures of the birch and the fools- 
cap from this cause alone; and unless the deficiency has been 
remedied in youth (as it is little likely to be by such measures), 
what greater tortures have they suffered in after-life from 
inability to remember persons and faces, to detect counter- 
feits, and to spell correctly even the commonest words of 
their native tongue. Many, too, are born deficient in power 
to judge of size, weight, color, or some other of the facul- 
ties named, incapacitating them to a greater or less extent 
for success in the practical duties and competitions of life. 
Recent test-examinations have proved that a considerable 
percentage of railroad employees are color-blind, thus un- 
fitting them to observe danger-signals, and exposing the 
traveling public to accidents and frightful disasters, unless 
such employees are removed. The same deficiency has been 
found among children in pub 1 ic schools. Were all mothers 
to take care to systematically cultivate and exercise this and all 



54 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

other faculties during gestation, instead of leaving the whole 
thing to chance, as is usually done, such deficiencies would 
doubtless disappear. 

Exercise for the culture of the Observing and Perceptive 
faculties, it is suggested, may properly commence about the 
third month ; and it is repeated that special attention should 
be given to those which are lacking, or which are least in 
clined to spontaneous exercise, in the mother, or in both 
parents. 

Aids in the systematic culture of these faculties may doubt- 
less be obtained from modern elementary works on Object 
Teaching for primary schools and kindergartens.* The de- 
fects of such works, or perhaps their entire absence, may be 
readily supplied by intelligent mothers, when they once un- 
derstand the thing to be done, and its importance. 

Fourth Stage — The next group of faculties, in order of 
location in the brain according to phrenologists, and appar- 
ently also in order of normal development in life, embraces 
what have been termed the Constructive and Beautifying 
powers, sometimes designated as the Semi-Intellectual group. 
These in phrenological parlance are named : 1, Constructite- 
ness, or ingenuity (the building and mechanical faculty) ; 2, 
Ideality, love of the beautiful and refined (the poetical 
faculty); 3, Sublimity, sense of the grand and sublime ; 4, 
Mirthfulness, or love of pleasantry, wit. Under the same 
general division may be classed, 5, Imitation, or the power to 
copy, represent, mimic ; and 6, Suavity, or agreeableness, 
blandness. 

Closely associated with this group are also the Reasoning 
and Reflective, and the Moral and Regulative faculties, all of 
which may be classed together as the Directive and Regula- 

* Catkins' "New Primary Object- Lessons " (New York : Harper & 
Bros.) contains systematic exercises for developing the five senses 
and most of the perceptive faculties. 






PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 55 

tive group. These include what are phrenologically termed: 
1, Causality, or power to apprehend first principles, to trace 
causes, etc.; 2, Comparison, or power to analyze, classify and 
generalize; 3, Human Nature, or sagacity in discernment of 
character; 4, Cautiousness, or prudence; 5, Continuity, power 
of consecutiveness or application; 6, Approbatiwness, regard 
for the good opinion of others, ambition; 7, Self -Esteem, or 
self-respect; 8, Conscientiousness, love of right and abhorrence 
of wrong; and 9, Firmness, or perseverance. 

Nothing need be said to any intelligent reader, as to the 
importance of each and every one of these faculties, in due 
exercise, to the formation of a well-balanced or perfect char- 
acter; and the proper methods of their culture, respectively, 
are to some extent suggested by the names given them. 

Special exercises for the development in the fetus of the 
brain organs through which these faculties may manifest 
themselves would seem to be in order after those adapted to 
the preceding group— say about from the fifth to the seventh 
month. 

Fifth Stage — In the last and highest group of human facul- 
ties — last and highest whether considered with reference to 
location in the cranium, or with reference to their value in 
human character, or the period at which they ordinarily 
arrive at maturity in the individual and in the race — we find 
what may be classed as the Humanitarian or Beneficent, the 
Religious or Worshipful, and the Aspirational, Spiritual, or 
Upward -Looking powers. These are phrenologically desig- 
nated as : 1, Benevolence, philanthropy, or universal love ; 2, 
Veneration, reverence or worship; 3, Hope, or cheerful ex- 
pectancy ; 4, Spirituality, aspiration, prescience, faith, or 
power to apprehend spiritual realities and to lay hold on un- 
seen verities. (This last has been sometimes termed "Mar- 
vellousness," and considered as synonymous with credulity, 



56 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

superstition, etc. ; but those words apply more properly to the 
unreasoning over-action than to the normal exercise of this 
faculty.) 

These constitute, indeed, the crowning attributes of human 
nature. No character can be regarded as complete and sym- 
metrical in which they are not in full and harmonious exer- 
cise. If any of this group, as of the preceding, are deficient 
in either parent, the expectant mother cannot discharge her 
full duty to the unborn unless she make earnest efforts to 
supply the deficiency by self-culture before its birth. The 
definitions of the several faculties as given above will suggest 
the nature of the exercises by which such culture may be at- 
tained. 

AYhile the faculties of this group should unquestionably be 
at all times kept in full exercise for the parent's highest good, 
yet their special culture may well occupy attention during 
the final weeks of the gestatory period— say from the seventh 
to the ninth month, inclusive. 

GENERAL REMARKS. 

This plan suggestive only.— It will be noticed that the 
methods of culture and the course of proceeding indicated in 
the foregoing pages are suggestive only. The author knows 
of no instance in which any such methodical course has been 
pursued, and therefore can bring no testimony as to its value 
from actual trial. The recommendations submitted seem to 
be reasonably deducible from known facts and principles, 
and to point the way to important desired results. Those to 
whom they apply, and who think them worthy of regard, are 
invited to put them to the test, and in due time to report the 
results. In this way valuable experience will be gained, and 
at some future day the world may be put in possession of 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 57 

facts for its safe and intelligent guidance in this most import- 
ant matter. 

Naturalness of the plan. — Though the idea of a methodical 
course of embryo-culture, as herein outlined, may seem novel 
tii many readers, yet it is believed (as remarked to the author 
by a very intelligent and experienced mother, on hearing it 
read) it will be found to coincide in a general way with the 
usual natural promptings or intuitions of thoughtful mothers. 
It is common for them, in the earlier stages of pregnancy, to 
desire travel, exhilarating exercise, visiting among relatives 
and friends, with a rekindling of the fires of affection. And 
then, at a later period, there is usually a special and laving 
exercise of the constructive and beautifying faculties, in the 
efforts to provide a titling wardrobe for the anticipated new- 
comer, and this is naturally attended and followed by more 
or less quickening and exaltation of the intellectual powers 
while, as the longed-for yet often dreaded crisis approaches, 
it is common and natural that the thoughts should turn more 
prominently upon spiritual things, with a looking upward to 
Higher Powers for the strength and support that are needed 
in the trying hour. 

The Phrenological theory not essential. — Though the no- 
menclature and to some extent the classification adopted by 
Phrenologists has been used in the foregoing outline (chiefly 
for the reason that nothing better seems for the present 
available), yet it should be noted that an acceptance of the 
Phrenological system as a whole is not essential to this 
plan. There are difficulties in the way of modern Phrenol- 
ogy, as usually taught, which debar many intelligent people 
from its acceptance in detail. That the brain is in some 
general w T ay the organ of the mind is, however, generally 
conceded. 

The important question is, Are the several faculties and in- 



58 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

stincts enumerated in the foregoing plan of culture actually 
manifested in the normal and healthy action of the human 
being ? If so, they should each and all be appropriately cul- 
tivated in parents and transmitted to offspring in due degree. 
If any have been named that can be shown not to exist, or to 
be abnormal and undesirable in a human being, then let such 
be passed by. And if others not included in any of these 
groups can be ascertained to belong to perfected human nature, 
then let all such receive due attention. The only object is 
that the highest and most perfect type of humanity may be 
secured to those who through our instrumentality may come 
after us. 

Things to be avoided. — The prospective mother, in her efforts 
to improve herself and to worthily endow her offspring, should 
by all means avoid anxiety, over-carefulness, oppressive fear 
of mistake, and a painful sense of duty. These feelings 
would tend to enstamp upon the coming one an over- anxious, 
foreboding, painfully-careful disposition, than which hardly 
a greater evil can be entailed. On the contrary, everything 
should be done with a cheerful delight, because its purpose is 
to confer blessings on an object of the tenderest affection, and 
it should be done with a joyful confidence as to the result. 
No greater blessing can be conferred than that of a cheerful, 
hopeful, helpful disposition, that delights in bestowing good 
upon others, and that meets all the vicissitudes of life with a I 
calm trustfulness. And there can be no doubt that such char- 
acteristics are determined in a large degree by the mother's 
state during gestation. 

It hardly seems necessary in this connection to advert to the 
importance of avoiding all exercise of malevolent feelings, such 
as anger, envy, jealousy, hatred, revenge, covetousness, or 
wrong desire of any nature, since all readers of the foregoing 
pages must understand the danger that such emotions, if in 
dulged, may implant in the embryo the subtle germs, from 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 59 

which will grow in after years the bitterest fruits. Of course, 
no serious reader of this work can be supposed to tolerate for 
a moment the thought of destroying an embryo, and hence no 
warning need here be given against that fearful crime (/. e. an 
attempt at abortion), the prevalence of which is filling our 
land with murderers, made such by their mothers before they 
are born. 

Surely too great care cannot be exercised to avoid the pos- 
sibility of entailing any such evil tendencies upon offspring. 
Persons of either sex, intending to become parents (and none, 
of course, should become parents without intending it), in 
whom proclivities in such directions remain unsubdued, 
would do well to pause and consider whether a work of regen- 
eration in themselves ought not to precede generation. But 
enough has already been said on this point. 

Another thing important to be avoided, as far as practica- 
ble, by the mother, is the presence of disagreeable and un- 
profitable associates of either sex. The untoward mental and 
moral influence that may be excited through the mother upon 
the forming child, by the frivolous and unseemingly conver- 
tation of persons unappreciative of the nobility and grandeu r 
of the work which occupies her — the effect, of course, indeli- 
cate speeches and the like — can be readily understood. But 
beyond this, there may be persons whose atmospheres are re- 
pugnant, and from whom the matron feels an instinctive 
shrinking. On no account should she allow herself, or be 
permitted by others, to be tortured by the presence of such re- 
pulsive individuals, whether as companions or domestics. 
There is reason to believe that the disagreeable characteristics 
of such repugnant persons are sometimes, by an occult law of 
transfer, enstamped upon offspring. At all events, their in- 
fluence cannot be otherwise than detrimental to the best de- 
velopment of the embryo. 



60 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 



THE FATHER S SHARE IX THE WOEK. 

In this work of Pre-Natal Culture, it scarcely need be 
said the father should take equal interest with the mother; 
for he is equally concerned in the object in view, namely, the 
production of noble and worthy offspriDg. Having given 
due attention to his own antecedent preparations, (see "The 
Better Way," section on personal preparations,) he may per- 
form essential service in the proper development of the em- 
bryo before birth. He can accompany and assist the mother, 
to some extent at least, in the various exercises appropriate to 
the successive stages of its unfolding, providing the proper 
facilities therefor, (such as means for physical exercise and 
travel, books, pictures, models, &c.)> so far as practicable, 
and he can lend his sympathy and encouragement at every 
step, guarding her against all untoward conditions or influ- 
ences and thus helping to secure such a result as will be a 
source of mutual joy forever. 

If, on the contrary, he manifests indifference, neglect, or 
untoward conduct of any kind, he may thwart and defeat 
the best efforts the mother can put forth, and may excite in 
her such feelings of depression, disappointment, grief, per- 
haps of repining, aversion, or disgust, as shall enstamp upon 
the child she is bearing characteristics which will prove a 
life-long burden or a curse. Many a child has been impressed 
before its birth with repugnance and dread toward its father, 
caused by his selfish and harsh treatment of the mother during 
this critical period, which can never be fully overcome in 
after life. Such a child is robbed of its birthright in paternal 
affection, and such a father robs himself of the bliss of filial 
love and confidence. The mother of one of the most quarrel- 
some, ungovernable, and unhappy families of children the 
writer ever knew, stated to^him that she never had the sym- 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 61 

pathy of the father during pregnancy in a single instance, but 
only his anger and dissatisfaction at her condition. A 
terrible penalty was that which this unhappy man drew 
upon himself, and a terrible curse did he inflict upon his 
offspring. 

CONFERRING SPECIAL TENDENCIES — GENIUS. 

In addition to the traits of a well-balanced character, it is 
doubtless desirable that parents should implant in each child 
tendency to and aptitude for some special occupation or form 
of usefulness. Such an inborn tendency and aptitude greatly 
enhances the probabilities of success in any pursuit that 
may be followed in life; and the want of it often results in 
failure, poverty, vagabondism, and crime. Of course, the 
occupation or profession selected should be an honorable 
and useful one, and any occupation which is useful is hon- 
orable. 

When a congenital tendency or capacity is so marked as to 
confer extraordinary abilities for achievement in any line, it is 
termed Genius. It is thus undoubtedly within the power of 
parents, who will acquaint themselves with the law, and com- 
ply with its requirements, to confer even the coveted gifts of 
genius upon each and all of their offspring. Genius is not a 
thing of mere caprice, a freak of nature, or a gift of the gods, 
as has been supposed, but is no doubt as really the result of 
favoring ante-natal conditions (often unnoted), and as amen- 
able to law, as is the production of a rarely superb flower or a 
specially delicious fruit under the hands of a skillful gar- 
dener. Its gifts are the exclusive heritage of no family, class 
or position in life. The poor and humble may secure them 
for their children as readily as the wealthy and aristocratic, 
if they but learn and compiy with the conditions. Is not 



62 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

this something worth knowing and living for ? How incom- 
parably more valuable are the qualities of genius than is ma- 
terial wealth ? In fact, genius, rightly directed and properly 
■combined, can command the wealth of the worM. Yet how 
many parents so assiduously devote their energies of both 
body and mind during their best years to " making money," 
in order, perhaps, that they may give their children " a 
start in life," that little of either physical or mental force re- 
mains to be imparted to these children. Consequently they 
become physical weaklings or mental incompetents. And the 
thought of endowing their offspring with the priceless treas- 
ures of immortal genius never once occurs to these parenls. 

But how may special tendencies and aptitudes be im- 
parted ? The facts and suggestions already submitted clearly 
indicate the methods. Let the parents, during the ten or 
twelve months antecedent to the birth of a child, interest 
themselves in, and prominently but cheerfully devote their 
minds to, the occupation, profession, or department of human 
interest to which they wish to destine the child. If they can- 
not practically engage in the chosen occupation, they may 
yet think, talk, read and study about it, and perhaps take op- 
portunities to witness the labors of others who are engaged in 
it, and thus become conversant with its details. This, if done 
with pleasure and delight, can hardly fail of producing the 
•desired result. In addition to all this is the power of aspira- 
tion. Let the mother cherish strong aspirations, breathed in 
earnest prayers, that her child maybe what she desires. The 
psychological influence of such aspirations, at such a time, 
cannot reasonably be questioned. No doubt, in the condition 
of receptivity or impressibility resultant from }-carning as- 
piration or some other adequate cause, in one or both parents, 
at the time of inception or subsequently, is to be found the 
■explanation of many cases of the occasional endowment of 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 63 

offspring with qualities far superior to what either parent 
has possessed. These seeming "freaks of nature," which 
have so puzzled students of heredity, would doubtless be 
found in strict accordance with law, were all the facts 
known. 

If a mother's choice as to the calling she would have her 
child puisne has been wisely made — if the character desired 
be a truly noble one, however common or humble — she may 
well make its attainment a subject of earnest prayer, which is 
but another word for aspiration. And in this connection let 
the reader recur to the case of the Quaker matron, whose 
daughter became a preacher, as narrated on a previous page, 
with the comments thereon. In that case is disclosed a'fur- 
ther source of aid in giving a desirable bent to the tendencies 
of offspring, which if real is of momentous import to every 
mother. 

The mother of the first Napoleon, it is said, during the 
months preceding his birth, accompanied her husband upon 
a military campaign, and deeply interested herself in strategy 
and the arts of war. She thus conferred upon her child a 
genius for human destruction, before which all Europe trem- 
bled for many years. How much nobler, through the opera- 
tion of the same law, to impart a genius for human improve- 
ment, which shall cause earth and heaven to rejoice through 
all coming time. 

While the means above indicated may be worthily employed 
to impart a special aptitude for some chosen line of useful- 
ness, yet the plan of general culture before recommended 
should not be neglected — since there is no faculty or propen- 
sity normal to the human being but is needed in clue and har- 
monious exercise, as much by the child of genius as by less 
gifted mortals. Genius without morals is a dangerous pos- 
session. 



64 PRE-XATAL CULTURE. 

It may be thought important, by some, that if parents un- 
dertake to pre-deterinine the aptitudes of their children for 
special occupations in life, they should also be able to pre- 
determine their sex, since certain occupations are deemed un- 
suitable for females, and others for males. 

In reference to this, the writer has only to say that while it 
is probable, as Agassiz has declared with regard to domestic 
animals, that the determination of sex may ere long be in the 
hands of intelligent persons, yet he is not satisfied that the 
present state of physiological science affords any certain 
means of control in this matter. Different physiologists have 
suggested diverse theories and plans relating thereto, but, as 
far as the writer can learn, all are attended with uncertainty. 
While this is the case, may we not pertinently ask, what valid 
objection is there to a person of either sex following any 
honorable pursuit, or performing any worthy function for 
humanity, for which he or she has a genius or a special fit- 
ness? The possession of such fitness for any department of 
service presupposes an ability to perform it icell. And what 
matters the sex of the performer, so that humanity is well 
served ? It would be difficult to name any honorable function 
in the whole range of human needs and capabilities but has 
been worthily filled and honored by persons of both sexes. 
True genius will command respect, and justify itself, which- 
ever garb of sex it may wear. 

TIMES AND SEASONS. 

In so important an undertaking as the initiation of an im- 
mortal being, doubtless it is well to have due regard to times 
and seasons. Though the matter is one of much delicacy, 
yet our treatise would be incomplete without some reference 



PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 65 

to it. In the animal kingdom we observe that, as a general 
rule, instinct leads to the bringing forth of young in the spring- 
time, or in early summer. That seems to be Nature's chosen 
and orderly time for the ushering in of new life in all de- 
partments. Probably human beings may well give heed to 
an intimation so broadly given, unless, indeed, the interior 
leadings of the intended mother clearly guide her otherwise. 

Following Nature's lead in this matter, the periods devoted 
to special exercises successively for physical, mental and 
moral culture, for the benefit of the embryo, as suggested in 
preceding pages, will fall into those seasons of the year which 
are ordinarily best adapted for the respective purposes — as 
Summer and Autumn for travel and out-of-door exercises, and 
Winter for mental and moral improvement. 

But doubtless in all such matters, the clear spiritual intui- 
tions of the intending mother, when she seeks to^be "led by 
the spirit," are the most authoritative guide. 

CONCLUSION. 

To what grander achievement can either woman or man as- 
pire than to be an artist in that noblest of aits, the moulding 
and rearing of immortal beings? Fadeless renown has 
crowned the efforts of gifted sculptors and limners in the past 
to portray the perfect ideal of the "human form divine." 
That field of High Art is open to comparatively few competi- 
tors — those fortunately endowed with rare genius. But there 
is a field of Higher Art, worthy of still greater honor — as 
much greater as the living perfect man is better than a sense- 
less image. And this field is open to almost every one, even 
the humblest, through the means set forth in the foregoirre; 
treatise. Yes ! the godlike privilege is brought within the 
reach of the great mass of those now entering the prime of 



66 PRE-NATAL CULTURE. 

manhood and womanhood, as well as of those who have not 
yet passed its noon-tide, of endowing irith the noble gifts of 
genius their own sons and daughters, however lowly bom. 

Young men and women of America — fathers and mothers 
of the future race— will you not accept this high privilege, 
and prove yourselves worthy of it? 



THE END. 






ftSMR 



>RE-NATAL CULTURE; 



SUGGESTIONS TO PARENTS 



RELATIVE TO 



fcTEM.VTIC METHODS OF MOULDING THE TENDEN- 
CIES OF OFFSPRING BEFORE BIRTH. 



By A. E. NEWTON, 

Author of " The Better Way," &c. 



r birth * * * wo have whole rivers of predispositions, good or 
running in us— as much more powerful to shape our future than 
mil and regulative influences that come after, as they are earlier 
itg, deeper in their insertion and more constant in their 
ii."— Rev. Dr. Bushnelx. 

c well-born child all the virtues are natural, and not painfully 
K. W. Emerson. 



righted, 1S93, by Caroline B. Window, M. D.\ 



FOURTH EDITION. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. : 

Published by the Moral Education Society 

No. 1. Grant Place. 



^*4 



ty*H 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



022 169 400 4 



